Sometime Around Midnight
by Tropicwhale
Summary: SLASH. Xander/Spike. 5th in "Grimmoire" arc. Things have finally settled down for Xander and Spike until a call about the Grimmoire takes the boys to Romania and deeper into the myths of their world than they ever expected to go.
1. Morning Ritual with a Twist

**SometimeAroundMidnight**

**_by_**: Tropicwhale

**_Disclaimer_**: Not. Mine. Don't know how many times I've said this….of course some of it is mine but I hold no claim to Paris, Transylvania, Dracula, Andrew, Oz, Spike or Xander or anything from the Buffy Universe that might pop up within this story.

**_Warning_: Warning!! THIS STORY CONTAINS SLIGHTLY SEXUAL SITUATIONS BETWEEN TWO CONSENTING ADULT MALES. IF THAT'S NOT YOUR CUP OF TEA, THERE IS A BACK BUTTON AND ALL FLAMES WITH BE MET WITH A DRESSING DOWN THAT WILL MAKE YOUR EARS BURN. THERE IS ENOUGH FLAMERS IN THIS STORY THAT WE DON'T NEED ANY MORE. THAT IS ALL.**

**_Author Talk_**: HI!! As I promised two days late….there are people in the "Bones" section of the site very sad right now but my promises to my Peanuts come first. And admit it…you all miss Spike as much as I do. So here he is....

in

"SOMETIME AROUND MIDNIGHT"

(and Xander too!!)

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**Chapter One**: Morning Ritual with a Twist

It was the smell of bacon that woke me up. I grab the glow-in-the-dark digital bedside clock to see that it's nine o'clock in the morning. I growl, mildly discontented. I roll off the bed along with a bunch of white sheets and a blue comforter (my lover's choice, we have an alternate set of bedding that's red and black). I rip the rest of the bedding from the bed and make it with my set. Thanks to Beledia LeBrun we have thick curtains that match both sets of bed clothes. The curtains were striped with black, white, red, and blue with cloth hoops through which was thrust a sturdy black rod that ran all the way across the double wide window. We had generic white carpeting over which I had put an authentic oriental found at a second hand store on the cheap.

The entire flat was decorated like this; a combination of my Gothic punk Victorian and Xander's American lack of style. It somehow works, like our relationship. Although we did get matching leather Lazy-Boy recliners, those comfy seats of the gods….bollocks, that sounded like him, didn't it? Bugger. I need British friends. I'm becoming more American and French then English which is just wrong on so many levels. I finish making the bed and take great pleasure in slamming the door open and stalk naked into the rest of the apartment because I still get a kick out of it even after three months of living alone with my boyfriend. I stalk through the heavy curtain-dimmed living room, scoff at the fugly brown leather sofa, and walk into the kitchen.

Xander is cooking bacon at the stove wearing his 'I'm-too-lazy-to-pick-out-decent-clothes-so-I'm-wearing-plaid-flannel-no-matter-what-you-call-me' shirt. I slip my arms under and up the shirt to get closer to his body heat and around his torso. I mold my body to his and nuzzle the spot between his shoulder blades. "Morning." I say…or mumble. Whichever.

"Morning, grease-monkey." I growl deep in my chest and pinch his belly fat to show my disapproval. I've told him a thousand times not to bring up that incident ever again. So, of course like a good Scooby intent on making my life miserable, he mentions it whenever possible. "Shut it, Spike." Of course, I have some influence on him too. "Crap…I'm turning British."

"Could never happen. You're simply not cool enough."

"Bastard."

"No. Pretty sure my parents were married…unlike yours." There was the distinctive click of the stove going off. I smirk into his shirt, pleased. I slide a knee in between his legs and inch it upward.

"Spike." Pretty sure that breath meant to be an insult but came out as a mere statement of my name.

"Hmm?" Xander sighs.

"I swear that we're the only couple that uses insults as foreplay."

"You and Cordelia, You and Ahn. You and…did you have more than two relationships before me?"

"Renee."

"Oh." Sore spot. "Buffy used punches as foreplay and Dru scratched."

"Great, we're masochists." I recognized that tone. That particular tone is not an aroused tone. That tone is a moody, none at all aroused tone. I'm morally against that tone.

"Sadomasochists. We give as good as we get. Besides, I love you and anything I say should be taken with a grain of salt and a blow to the head, yeah?" I grind up against him to remind him of the mood that I was trying to cultivate, namely his arousal. "Of course by blow to the head I mean-" I draw out the words for his laugh then trail off.

"You're such a sleaze."

"Yeah, but I'm your sleaze." Xander turned around and I let him wrap his arms around me. He looks down those few annoying inches at me with that big brown eye and leans down to kiss me. I lick at his lips, his teeth, his tongue. He bites my tongue, my lips, his arms resting on my shoulders. My arms are around his waist. He moves his head to kiss at my jaw then moves his hands to grasp my shoulders. We back out of the kitchen, mutually feeling each other up. At one point I stumble and he catches me. I wrap my arms around his neck and he grabs my thighs so we end up stumbling into the couch. He bites my neck gently as I shift, getting stuck to the cheap leather. "Guh, why did we buy this monstrosity?" Xander pauses in his tasting of my neck to look down at me

"Easy clean up." Oh. Yeah. I knew that.

"Huh." I reach up and pull him to me. I push so that I'm on top of him, longways, on the couch. I pull off his shirt and toss it behind the couch where I know he'll have a bitch of a time retrieving it. I grin at that and scratch along his ribs before he can ask what's so funny. His hands run down either side of my spine to grab handfuls of my ass and push to create friction for us both. I reach down his sweats and barely touch him where he's most sensitive. He gasps and I grab hold of his dick which causes a full body shudder. He lets go with one hand to reach into the couch cushions for the bottle of lubricate that we keep there. I move my head to lick the bite mark on his neck which is incredibly exciting to the both of us, him because it such a sensitive spot on his body and me because it means he's mine, really mine.

Ten o'clock found us collapsed together on the couch without a care in the world. Very suddenly, Xander's stomach growls. We look at each other and burst out laughing. "Hungry, pet?"

"Well, you did stop me from finishing making my breakfast."

"You don't _need_ to eat." Xander laughed briefly.

"Really? I was under the impression that I did."

"Yeah, well, your mistake." Xander laughed and threw me off his chest. "WHOA!" I yell as my naked ass hits the ground. "Bitch." Xander chuckled evilly as he stood and pulled up his sweat pants then looked around.

"Where's my shirt?" I shrug innocently. "Spike."

"Yeah?" I look up at him from the floor. "Can I help you?"

"Spike?"

"Yeah?"

"Did you throw my shirt behind the couch again?" I look at him in confusion.

"I might have. I'm not sure. I was sort of distracted at the time." Xander narrowed his eye at me suspiciously.

"You sneaky little fangface." He bounced onto the couch and looked behind it. "Fuck." I mock-gasp,

"Xander! Language!" He turns to look at me from his blindside, realizes that doesn't work and turned the other way. I grin at his annoyed look. He growls at me fairly decently and I attempt to look contrite but I can't help but be a cheeky bastard about it. He growls again for good measure and bends over to grab the shirt. I stand and slap his ass and bolt before he can react properly. I hear him mumble about my little white ass and I cackle evilly as I slam the bed room door shut. I love not living with a bunch of teenaged girls…or Angel….or Andrew for that matter. Of course, I have yet to meet the living soul that would want to live with Andrew Wells. I put on a black tee shirt and my blue jeans with a plain black belt and a weird purplish-bluish dress shirt. I looked down at the shirt and took it off again with a sigh of derision. I don't care what our girls said about fashion. This shirt was still ugly. I drop it into the waste bin (knowing Xander, it probably end up back in the closet) and walk out to the kitchen.

When I get there Xander's back in his fugly plaid shirt making bacon and eggs. I open the refrigerator and grab a bag of OB neg and put it between my fangs. "Don't spill that everywhere." Xander warns me like he does everyday. I flip him off as I'm routing through the cabinets for my favorite novelty mug that states "SUCK IT!" in German, French, Dutch and English. The "Twilight" series is for shit but it did produce a lot of vamp friendly merchandise that I love to buy and give to our brood of Vampire Slayers. The irony kills me. My only regret is that Alex and Kenya both seem to develop an unhealthy attachment to Edward Cullen who, in fact, reminds me of Angel, that great broody poof that originated the whole "I love you but stay away from me" vibe. Makes me gag and I haven't even had breakfast yet! I grab the mug and rip open the bag then dump the red liquid into the cup. I pop into the microwave for a bit and steal some finished bacon from the pan. Xander slaps my wrist with the tongs he was using to flip the bacon in the pan. I chuckle evilly and pull out another pan and a bowl and start to make his scrambled eggs. The microwave beeps and I pull out my mug to sip at it over the stove. The blood's a little bland so I dump some of the undercooked egg in it and Xander blanches and gags. I grin at him and he turns off the stove and walks away. I gulp down the rest of the egged blood and clean out the mug in the sink. He comes back in when I'm setting up a plate for him with the eggs and some toast. "Mail's in." he says as he drops it onto the pass-through bar-island thing. I grunt as he finishes off the bacon and loads his plate with it. I pour him a cup of coffee and take about half of the meat off his plate.

"You're not getting heart disease." He sticks his tongue out at me and digs into his breakfast while I sort through the mail. "Bill. Bill. Bill. Junk. Letter from your mum…why doesn't she just email? Junk. Bill. Postcard from your Aunt-slash-cousin from Puerto Rico…" I turn it over and read it. "They're having a lovely time…yadda, yadda, yadda, when can they visit their favorite relative in Paris." I snort. "God, that's subtle. Not. How they produced you is beyond me."

"A happy accident?" I look at him.

"Yeah, your da ran out of rubbers. I'd call that an accident…I'm not sure about the happy part."

"Believe it or not I was planned."

"You're right. I don't believe it. By the way, have you phoned your parents in Toledo and told them that you're gay now?"

"Uhhhh." I exhale through my nose.

"One day, Xander, you will have to tell them."

"Do I have to tell them that I'm dating a vampire?"

"Living…You're living with a vampire and no, you can leave that part out…I just want you to be honest with them."

"I am. The way you're honest with Buffy." I point at him.

"Hey, that's me saving our relationship from certain doom."

"And not telling my parents isn't?"

"Point." I restart sorting the mail. "Bill. Oh!" The last letter was for me.

"What?" Xander stopped with a forkful halfway to his mouth. "What is it?" I try to block him from seeing but he catches a glimpse of the official looking letter head. "Universite Sorbonne Nouvelle? Why would they be writing you?" I clear my throat and open the letter. "Spike?" I start breathing then stop myself as I unfold the letter and start to read. In English it read _Dear Mr. William Pratt; We_ _are delighted to welcome you to the Universite Sorbonne Nouvelle's English General and Comparative_ _Literature program. Within two weeks you will be sent a starter package as well as your orientation date. We hope that you have a productive and pleasant time at Paris III. Sincerely yours;…_ I exhale and start reviewing the sewer systems, public transports and the like to the campus. Xander had come over and read it over my shoulder. "Spike…when did you apply to college? How did you apply to college? You're dead. You're exempted from the whole higher education thing." I shrug, really happy.

"Did it on a whim really. I always liked school and got bored sitting around the house all day while your off training the girls and thought it seemed like a good idea at the time."

"Spike. You can't go out in the daytime. You're a vampire."

"One of the reasons I applied to _Sorbonne Nouvelle_. Sewer access right into most of the buildings." I folded the letter up and shoved it into the back pocket of my jeans. I shrug again. "If you don't want me to go I won't." Xander looked at me hard.

"Why wouldn't I want you to go? I'm just saying that's seems like it's going to be difficult."

"Yeah, well. Anything in life worth doing is going to be difficult."

"You don't seem like the brainy type."

"You have my memories in your head…I once _was _the brainy type…and I never did finish school. We're sort of settled here in Paris…for now and…it just….seemed like a good idea..." My voice sort of trails off. I look away, suddenly embarrassed by the whole thing.

"So go do it." I look back at him but don't say anything. "It sounds like you thought this thing out completely….which is rare for you and you sound like you really want it so go do it. I'll be your working class lover supporting you the whole way." I swallow harshly.

"Yeah?" I ask softly.

"Yeah." He steps into me and we hug. He chuckles "Doesn't take much with you, does it?" I bite his shoulder with my fangsin retaliation. "OW!" He pulls back and bops me on the head. "Grease-monkey!"

"Bitch!" The phone rings. He turns to answer it and I steal the rest of his bacon.

"Hello? Hey, Oz…she's what? Yeah! I'll be there as soon as I can. I'll tell Spike." Xander turns around to look at me. "Patricia just went into labor." I start. "I'm going down to the hospital…be there as soon as the sun goes down?"

"Yeah! Go! If she delivers before dark call me, yeah?" He nods frantically. I point at the phone. He startles himself and nearly drops it. I catch it and him before either falls. "Oz?

"Hey, Spike."

"Yeah. Xan's a little bit…Xan right now and he'll be there as soon as he gets dressed." I push my lover toward the bedroom cradling the phone to my ear. He jumps and goes as I pull out a pencil and a pad of paper from a draw. "Which hospital is it?" I write it down and pull my laptop toward me from across the pass-through bar to write in the address on Google Earth. "Alright, thanks Oz. We'll be there soon." I end the call and put the cordless back on the receiver. I hit print and bolt across the room to the wireless printer to grab Xander's copy. He bashes out of the bedroom, bouncing on one foot trying to put a shoe on. I shove the map into his mouth.

"Ang uuu." He hums around the paper, attempts to kiss my cheek with the paper still in his mouth, fails epically at it, and races out the apartment. I pull up the city sewer grid and try to find the closest access to the hospital my godchild was being born in….Bloody hell, that sounds weird. My _godchild_. I'm a vampire who has a godchild….shouldn't it be devilchild? Or vampfather? Or something like that? Just so weird.

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**_Author After Talk_: A few days late but fairly good, wouldn't you say? Please say. Feedback is appreciated because this is for you.**

**Tropic**


	2. Patricia's a Mom

_**Sometime Around Midnight**_

_**by**_: Tropicwhale

_**Disclaimer**_: You know this part...I'm not the owner.

_**Author Talk**_: YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAH. So, James Marsters and Sullivan Marsters have a YouTube account. SO CUTE! JamesMarstersandSon. Look them up. Also, I was doing a Zombie movie, math homework, working my own novel, and working. Sorry it took me so long to get this up. I'm in the middle of writing chapter 3 and have up to chapter seven outlined out. This was a long chapter. I'm glad I'm updating the story though!

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**Chapter Two: Patricia's a Mom**

I take a taxi to the hospital trying to convince the Romany driver that 'no I didn't want to take the scenic route because a) I wasn't a tourist and b) my friend's having a baby'. Evenually I cursed him out in Romanian, Spanish, and French to convince him I wasn't some hapless American tourist. I told him the name of the hospital again, and told him very clearly, in French, that my friend was in labor and I needed to be there five minutes ago.

It was amazing how fast and dangerous taxi drivers become when you promise a tip the size of…nevermind. Anyway, did you know Spike's gutter mindset is contagious? Because it is. The taxi's wheels squealed as it braked in front of the hospital. I threw most of the bills in my wallet at him which was waaaaaaaaaaaaayyyy too much for a four mile drive (two from the slayer safehouse cuz, well, uh, thirteen slayers in a single house…stuff gets broken, ya'know?). I bolt to the front desk and as for the maternity wing…in English. The woman on duty looks at me blankly. I repeat the question, in French, and ask after Patricia. She checks the computer and points me in the right direction. I thank her and bolt. She yells after me that this was a hospital, not a racecar track. I slow down and bolt as soon as I turn the corner. As a result I nearly collide into Beledia LeBrun, offical Watcher of the Paris squad. Oops.

"How is she?" The black Frenchwoman smiles at me.

"Last I heard, fine. Where's Spike?"

"Sewers….he got a college acceptance letter." Random. My mind goes weird places when stressed.

"He got in? Oh good." I blink at the den mother.

"You knew?"

"I helped him apply. There was a good bit of…shall we say wheels to grease?"

"You forged papers for him?"

"Actually, no. He had proof of life already."

"Wait. What?"

"Spike has a birth certificate saying that he was born in London to a midwife in 1962 to a pair of unmarried hippies, a British social, a French work visa, a passport and, strangely enough a valid French driver's license."

"How'd he manage all that?" Beledia shrugs that wonderful Gaelic shrug that means nothing and everything.

"How should I know? You need to ask him." Just then the core Paris squad turns the far corner as one and moves with purpose toward me. Alex and Kenya, Beledia's daughter, were at the head of the group with the bubbly brunette Canadian slayer, Mary, and the Spanish slayer, Cal, behind them.

"XANDER!" my name was called in four different tones, dialects, and levels of warmth. I give each girl a hug, even Calida. I pull back and look at the Spanish slayer.

"You cut your hair." Calida runs her fingers through her short cropped hairstyle with a fringe that went to her chin absently. We started to walk down the hallway and turned the corner they had appeared down.

"Do you like it?"

"Well, yesterday you had hair down to here." I indicate her waist "And now it's all gone."

"It got in the way during patrol. I'm not sure about the bangs though." The small red-head, Alex huffs and rolls her eyes.

"It's called a fringe. Bangs stop here." She draws a line across her forehead with her finger. "You look cute, Cal." Calida looks at me.

"You do." I assure her. There's a flash in her eyes before her face closed itself off. Calida was every inch a soldier. The main thing with her was trying to get her to open up and trust the members of her squad. So far, she trusted…me, Xander LeValle Harris. Which doesn't sound like much but it was an improvement that took a year of being puppy-friendly, older brother-Watcher, pastry-bringing Zeppo me to get her to give us that much. Cal turns on her heel and marches away to the waiting room and sits down stiffly. Mary and Alex both made sounds of annoyance. I fold my arms around their shoulders. "Girls…she's coming along."

"She's still a bitch." Alex says. Beledia shoots her an angry look. "She is."

"Alex. Compassion."

"Tell that to Calida." The small redhead shoots back.

"Alex." I say, quietly as we reach Calida. We all sit down and a nurse looks over at us suspiciously. "So where's Oz?"

"He's in there with her. He wanted to be there for the birth of his child." Kenya explains. I nod.

"At least it's nothing serious. Usually when we're in here it's because of…" Mary was silenced with a look from Beledia, Calida and myself. I smile tightly at the eavesdropping nurse and she walks away. "I'm just saying that it's not the ER, it's the maternity ward."

"Yeah. Okay." I say and start tapping out a rhythm on the arm chair.

"Where's Spike?" Mary suddenly asks.

"Day."

"Oh."

"He got into college." See what I mean about randomness and stress?

"Then that means you don't have an excuse, Xander." Kenya says. I flip her off.

"Hey, I barely got enough SATs to get into a community college and I never had the money…I'm not even sure how _he_ can afford it."

"He's Spike. Pretty sure he can do anything when he sets his mind to it." Kenya says.

"That is if he's doesn't get bored first." Alex adds. She looks at me sideways. "You're worried about it." I shove my hands into my pockets. "You're worried about Spike going back to school!"

"Awww, that's so cute!" Mary bounced in her seat and clapped her hands. The other women (minus Cal) made cooing noises.

"Shattap!" I collapsed further into the boney plastic and metal chair.

"Oooh, now he's pouting."

"Who's pouting?" I turn and we all look up. Oz is standing at the start of a branching hallway, dressed in blue scrubs, his red and blonde hair hidden under a cotton mesh cap.

"Xander." Alex said.

"Spike got accepted into college." Kenya explained. Oz reared his head back a little.

"Really?"

"Yeah. He got a letter of acceptance in the mail this morning." I confirm. Oz frowns a little.

"Huh."

"What?"

"I'm just….trying to imagine Spike in Professor Walsh's Psych 101 class. It's surprisingly easy."

"Yeah…if you ignore the fact that that bitch was the reason why I ended up falling in love with a slayer and living with Xander in the basement of hell." Spike says as he stalks down the hall toward us. "How is she?" he nods at Oz.

"She's fine. Resting right now. The doctor has her on drugs for the pain."

"Good. You'd be surprised how fast you can cover four miles underground." The vampire collapsed in a chair next to me. Oz sat down as well. The nosey nurse made another pass, shooting a sharp glance at Spike. Spike caught the glance and gave her a two finger salute. She blushed and hurried away.

"I wished you wouldn't do that." I whisper as I slouch further into the chair and let my left leg touch his right leg.

"What? Flirt?" I huff in annoyance. "Don't worry, mate…I'm yours." That made me slouch further in embarrassed. "Cute blush, Xander." I'm practically horizontally on that horrible metally plastic chair.

"I should get back in there." Oz stood. I go to stand to show him solitary and fall because my weight distribution was off. I ended up tipping the chair and sprawled on the floor. Everyone laughed. "You okay, Xander?" the werewolf ask, whereas my boyfriend just laughs. I stand, right the chair, apologize for accidently (I swear!) hitting Spike's shin with the metal leg of the chair, and clap Oz on his shoulder. My high school buddy nods, looking decidedly shaken, then he turns and walks back down the hallway. It then occurs to me that Oz was the first of my friends to have children. I collapse back into the chair.

"Xan?" Spike lays a hand onto my forearm.

"It just hit me that my friends are all having kids. When did we get so old?" Spike chuckled and kissed me on my cheek just as that nurse walked by again. There's a brief stab of smug, vindictive jealousy in my chest when she picks up her pace as she catches sight of his hand on my thigh which settles again when it reoccurs that _Oz_ is having a kid!

"What's amatter, Xander?" Beledia asked, looking up from her knitting.

"He just realized that he and all his friends are getting old." Spike chuckled evilly.

"You'll get used to it." Beledia said. "Right around when your child is a teenager and they start to use your age as a weapon against you."

"I don't plan on having kids, Beledia." I tell her.

"You're having a child with your witchy friend." The Watcher said. uhhhhhhh. Spike started to chuckle then laugh hysterically.

"YOU SHOULD SEE YOUR FACE!" He falls of the chair onto his face, laughing. "Ow, I urt my noshe" The girls giggle except for Cal who raises her eyebrow.

"Well, it's a good thing we're in a hospital." Mary giggles. I chuckle too and help the vampire up. Spike collapses in my lap, still laughing. He rolls to look up at me and points at my face. I get cross-eyed looking at his finger

"You're going to be a daddy." He chuckles.

"And think, you didn't want that to happen." Spike snuggles, even though his back is arched over the arm of the waiting chair.

"Yeah, but I folded like a cheap date on prom night." The girls and I groan.

"Spike, that was inappropriate." Beledia says. Spike rolls his head to look at her and falls to the floor again. He bounces up and nods at the dark skin woman.

"Sorry Beledia." he says sincerely. He turns back at me, pointing again. Is it wrong I want to break my boyfriend's finger? "You're going to be a daddy."

"I'll be sure to call Angel and ask for tips." Spike sat down at that, pouting at the low blow. "As it is Dru was calling me her son-in-law."

"What?"

"Didn't I tell you that?"

"No. You didn't." Spike looks wary.

"Huh. I'm sure I did at some point." Spike's looking seriously freaked by what I was saying. "Hey. It's okay. She meant it in a good way…she also called me burning fish…and her kitten….I think that was a compliment." Drusilla's weird. Yeah, I know. Hard to believe, isn't it? She seems like such a stable, down to earth, sane person.

"Xander. Dru-"

"You don't have to tell me that she's dangerous. I know she's dangerous. She also likes me."

"Yeah. For food."

"Actually for you." That stopped him short.

"Wot?"

"She said she turned you for me….something about true love and shining knights and kittens and burning fish around your head and destiny. She sort of talks in metaphors…did you noticed that?"

"No."

"I'm sure I mentioned it before."

"No, Xan. You didn't." Kenya stood suddenly.

"I want coffee. Anyone else want coffee?" There was a chorus of 'yeses' from the females who quickly disappeared.

"Are you sure?"

"Xander, I would have remembered if you told me that Drusilla took that much of an interest in you."

"She rescued me from being raped, drained and torn apart."

"Yeah, but Dru was always doing weird things like that. Well, watching things like-or nevermind."

"I know. Crazy vampire chick probably had an alternate reason for saving me….but so not going to question it when it works out in my favor-" Spike gave me a look. "eventually." He raises his eyebrow. "It did." The other eyebrow crept up his forehead. This calls for drastic tactics. I glomp him. "I love you." He rests his forehead against my shoulder and sighs.

"Xander." I grin because I won. He knows it. I know it. We both know it. "How many times has that nurse walked by?" He's peaking at the woman from my shoulder as she sped past again.

"I don't know. A few times. Why?"

"She's giving you and the girls the evil eye."

"I didn't notice."

"Yeah well, you wouldn't." I snuggle into him.

"You have twice the eyes I do to see stuff like that." He chuckles at that.

"Eyuck! Cute couple cuddling." Alex flopped on the other side of me with a cup of hot chocolate and handed me a cup as well. I sip at it then hand it to Spike who took a gulp.

"Triple C's" Beledia said.

"That's bad." Kenya said.

"C-C-Contagious." Mary sing-songs, quoting a popular song from the radio. Cal, Spike and I groan.

"Lame." I proclaim. Spike brushes his nose against my neck.

"There she goes again." he whispers. I look over at the nurse…she was carrying the same file as last time and she was definitely look at us with suspicion. I nuzzle him back.

"Maybe she's upset because we're gay."

"Was she stalking us before I got here?" That's an interesting point. I lean over to Alex and ask her about the nurse as she passes by us again.

"Yeah." the red-head answers. "She was eavesdropping too. What do you think? Twilight groupie?"

"I don't know. Try to be subtle about telling the others." I whisper. Spike lays his head on my shoulder and partly closes his eyes. Alex nods and announces she needs to go to the bathroom. Kenya and Mary go with her. I motion Beledia over. "Hey, so how do you like our old room?" I ask her. She had moved into the safe house with the girls after Spike and I moved out. She was officially their den mother and Watcher.

"I like it very much…of course it isn't as dark as when you two lived there."

"Well, yeah. No heavy curtains." She and I laugh as Spike shifts to get more comfortable. I can tell he's watching the nurse. I lower my voice as if I don't want to disturb my boyfriend's nap.

"How long has that nurse been spying on us?" I say once the woman was out of earshot. Beledia seemed to know exactly what I was talking about.

"Ever since we got here. I think she knows that the girls are slayers."

"Do you think she could be a threat?"

"Maybe…nothing we can really do about it, though. Ever since that Harmony killed that slayer on television…if we do anything….there could be a major problem on our hands."

"Alright. Stay alert. Go see if you can see Patricia and Oz and tell them about it. I'll tell Cal." Beledia sighs and stands. She stretches and announces that she's going to check in on Patricia and Oz. I bob my head and give a short wave as she walks away. "Hey, Cal." She looks up at me. I wrap my arms around Spike's shoulder and he shifts again to get more comfortable.

"Hola Xander."

"Come're." She stands and sits down next to me. "How are you progressing with your training?"

"I'm progressing well. Training with you and the vamp-" I give her a look. She knows that I hate it when she or anyone doesn't call Spike by his name. "-and Spike has greatly improved my fighting technique…Unfortunately, Patricia can still….."

"Kick your ass?" Cal didn't like using cuss words or the fact that a woman who was nine months pregnant could hand her ass to her. It was something we were working on.

"Yes."

"Hey…you count stuff."

"What?" She turned her head to look at me.

"You see details. How many times has that particular nurse walked by us." I indicate the nurse.

"Twenty times since we sat down. She came on duty about twenty minutes after we arrived."

"See?"

"Twilight?"

"A slayer is giving birth to a werewolf's baby…could be anything. Be ready to run interference when the baby is born."

"Why me?"

"Because…you're the best soldier I have." She smiles at me, really proud of herself. "Spike?" I whisper to my boyfriend who is being a dork and drooling on my shirt, pretending to be asleep. He 'snorts' himself awake. The big faker.

"yeah?"

"I'm going to need you to attack Cal if it comes down to it okay?"

"kay." and he promptly 'passes out' again.

Several hours went by and the squad reassembled in the waiting room. Beledia, Alex and Kenya were playing a hand of Go Fish with a pack of cards bought in the gift shop, Calida was watching the nurse run back and forth pointedly. The Spanish girl made it clear she was aware of the nurse's attention and didn't like it. Now the nurse passed by as quickly and infrequently as possible. Mary was sleeping, curled up in a chair, with Beledia's jacket as a pillow and Spike's trench covering her when Oz came out into the waiting room again. I was partly snoozing against Spike who has well and truly fallen asleep out of boredom when the werewolf appeared and pulled off the cotton cap. His hair was a sweaty mess but he looked really happy. He was smiling and everything. I sat up as did everyone else. Oz took a deep breath and so did I. "They're moving Patricia to a room and they went to clean up Estella." I blink sleepily at the musician and shift to wake up Spike.

"Estella?"

"My grandmother's name. We decided to name our daughter after my grandmother and Patricia's mom. Estella Rose Kelly-Osbourne. She's five pounds eleven ounces, has ten fingers and ten toes and my red hair." He collapses into a chair. "I'm a dad." he looks dumbstruck.

"When can we see her?" Beledia asks.

"Patricia wants for her to meet you all at once so a nurse should come and tell us when they're ready for us." Oz said, then lays his head back against the top of the chair.

"Tired?" I ask.

"Remember staying up for a week studying for finals and trying to stop the ascension of the Mayor?"

"Yeah. That was intense."

"I'm that wiped out."

"Damn."

"Yep. But it's cool though…no fire or giant snakes but this little living thing that…" He gives me this grin that says it all.

"I'm happy for you, man."

"I'm happy for me too." A nurse comes over and smiles at Oz. "Mr. Osbourne? Patricia and Estella are ready to see you now." She said. Oz stood and Spike sat up from his fake sleep. I chuckle quietly at how quickly he loses interest in what he was suppose to be doing when Patricia is mentioned.

"Can we see them too?" he asks.

"_Oui_" The nurse replies and Spike bounces to his feet. The girls and I pull ourselves up and follow the nurse and Oz down a hallway with Spike and Beledia in the lead and Cal and I bringing up the rear. The nurse stops and opens a door to a semi-private room then walks away. We enter the room to see Patricia laying in bed holding her baby and looking exhausted and happy the way Oz looks exhausted and proud. Her long, brown hair was in a low ponytail cascading over her shoulder in a sweaty, tangled mess. She looks up and smiles when she sees that it's us coming through the door.

"Hey." she says softly "She's sleeping." We all crowd around the bed trying to get a look at the tiny new life. Spike sort of drifts back toward the wall. Oz takes his daughter into his arms and grins at his girlfriend.

"Who wants to hold her first?" he asks as the women group around him, leaving Spike to edge closer to the mother. "Spike?" the vampire's head snaps up, startled.

"Yeah?"

"Wanna hold Estella as her godfather?" Oz asks.

"I-uh-well-I uh uh…" My mind flashes onto William Pratt and giggles just a little bit. It's adorable...just don't tell Spike about it. "What about Xander? He's a godfather too." Whoa, curveball.

"Beledia!" I pass the buck. Beledia takes Estella out of Oz's arms.

"You boys are impossible." The French woman said. I caught Patricia laying a hand on Spike's hand that was clenched around the railing on the hospital bed. She and I both knew how much Spike was terrified of being a parent. His concept of a newborn was a midnight snack for over a hundred years. The girls were passing around Estella and making cooing noises at the sleepy infant. I sneak over to Spike and Patricia and lay my hand on top of hers that Spike's clasping in both of his hands. Spike looks up at me with wide blue eyes. I give a small smile and Patricia squeezes his hand. It was a comfort to know that Spike, badass extraordinaire, was apparently as freaked out by the baby as I was. Next thing I know I am being handed Estella by Alex and there's this tiny little live thing in my hands. I am reminded, unnecessarily, to support her head and then she moves! My guy instincts kick in and I hand her off to the nearest possible person…who, unfortunately, was Spike.

He blinks at me then looked down at Estella who he had cradled against his chest, shell-shocked. She was wrapped up in those hospital-issued pink blankets and she reaches out of it with this microscopic fist and grabs the front of the red button-down shirt he's wearing over his habitual black tee shirt. I watch, bemused, as Spike's face transform from terrified shock to absolutely smitten. He adjusts so that he can pull Estella's finger off his shirt and smiles when she wraps them around his finger instead. He's so besotted and it's so cute. My cell phone rings. I flick it open. "Hello?"

"XANDER!" I hold the phone away from my ear.

"Hello Andrew. Lower the volume."

"Oh." I sigh.

"Your vocal volume, Andrew, not the Britney Spears." Spike gave me a look, bouncing Estella gently to get her to fall back asleep. I grin at him and make a face. He smirks back.

"Oh."

"Better. Now what is it that you wanted?"

"Uh….Willow said something about a book that you were looking for….last time I…uh…talked to her."

"Yeah. What about it?"

"I…uh…located it." I blink.

"You located the Grimmoire of Morgan Le Fay?"

"Yeah. It's in Romania."

"Alright, listen to me, Andrew. The vampire that has it is called Aneirin. You can't go near her. Or let any slayer near her. She's more than your group can handle."

"Oh. No. I have it."

"What?"

"But I'm not allowed to leave the country…uh Xander? I'm sort of in trouble….can you come and…er…bail me out?" I sigh.

"This isn't a good time, Andrew."

"Yeah. I know…but I wouldn't call if I didn't need-"

"Alright. I'll get a plane to Bucharest in the morning. I'll be there no later than tomorrow evening."

"Thank you, Xander! I owe you one! I-"

"Okay, Andrew. It's fine. I'll see you tomorrow." I shut the phone. "Hey, Spike…wanna go to Romania?"

"You do realize that Romania is a bad place for my family, right?"

"You already have a soul." His response was a dry sort of look that was sarcastic and questioning my intelligence all in one slight raise of the eyebrow and a slightly open mouth. "I'm going to shut up now." Spike gave me another look that clearly said that he didn't care. So, ignoring him. "Hey, Cal, want to go to Romania?"

"HEY!" Alex exclaims. "What about me?"

"Or me?" Mary adds.

"Yeah. Why does Cal get an invite?" Kenya asks.

"Do you really want Cal around Estella the first week she's alive?" Spike says suddenly. "Or me or Xander for that matter?" The girls and Oz all take that in.

"Yeah."

"Okay."

"I can see that."

"It would be kinda bad for the baby." Oz says. I sigh. The confidence in our childrearing abilities is overwhelming and touching.

* * *

_**Author After Talk**_: Need food. Write later.

Tropic


	3. Airports are now VampireFriendly

**_Sometime_********_Around_********_Midnight_**

**_by_**: Tropicwhale

**_Disclaimer_**: Not mine.

**_Author Notes_**: So I know I promised to have this fic done by two days ago but…life intervened. Sorry! Working as hard and as fast as I can. I have to finish this story right quick and work on my real life novel that I'm speaking to a publisher about so…yeah! BUSY! But I hope that this chapter more than makes up for the wait. For those of you reading "Skeletons"…I'm obviously behind schedule and thinking of writing both these stories at once to get them finished faster...As for the chapter title…I meant for them to be at the airport at this point but….I wanted other stuff to happen but I liked the chapter title as foreshadowing. Okay, rather blatant fore-shading-in but whatever. I'm really please with my writing in this chapter. I might have to slow down with all my writing.

* * *

**Chapter Three**:_  
Airports Are (now) Vampire Friendly_

We went through the same routine we went through every time we went traveling. Meaning Xander packs while I make the travel arrangements for the three of us. Three of us. Personally, I'm glad Xander decided to take Calida with us. We would need a soldier going into enemy territory. Yeah, she may be a bitter, distrustful, prudish bitch but I'd rather have her watching our backs than one of the other girls who are more personable but with less field focus going into Romania.

Romania was the traditional seat of power for the three most powerful vampiric clans on the planet; the Aurelius, the Cainites, and, of course, the Dracul. The entire region was divided between those three groups. Not to mention there were four to seven gypsy families roaming the countryside and the locals weren't, exactly, fond of either vampires, their Claims or strangers. Between Aneirin (probably), Dracula (definitely) and the Romany (most likely) we would be walking into a pit of vipers wearing big blinking neon targets stating "ENEMIES! FRIENDS OF BUFFY SUMMERS! KILL US NOW, PLEASE!" with all the subtly of Las Vegas on a fight night.

I'm a bit nervous. Just a bit, mind, about traveling to Romania, of all places, to retrieve the Grimmoire from Andrew, of all people.

Granted I was banking on my reputation as a Master Vampire and Xander's connection to both Buffy and Dracula to keep us safe but having a Slayer as a bodyguard would enhance that reputation and between Calida and I Xander should be safe. Yeah, she didn't like me which worked out because she wasn't exactly on my list of people that were fun to be around. But she was loyal to Xander and that's what mattered.

I get the tickets online and call the safehouse. Kenya answered. "Marie LeBeau's residence. How may I help you?"

"Precious, it's me."

"Hey Spike."

"Is Calida there or has she already left yet?"

"She's already heading your way. She left about fifteen minutes ago." The doorbell rang.

"That should be her then. Thanks Kenya."

"You are welcome, Spike. Just be careful. No one here trusts her."

"Xander trusts her."

"Yeah…well…Xander loves you. We're pretty sure he's got some mental damage." HehHeh. That's funny. Wait…Oi!

"You know what?" I hang up and go to answer the door. Sure enough, it's Cal. "Hey. Come in." She came in without saying a word with her duffle over one shoulder. I shut the door and lock it. I lead her into the living where she goes to investigate Xander's wall of comics that he's had framed. "Xander is in the bedroom packing. I've bought tickets for a flight that takes off tonight at eight-thirty our time which would put us in Bucharest at ten-thirty." She wanders over to the television. "Hungry?" She shakes her head. She continues to wander around the apartment. "That's right. You've never been to visit, have you?" She checks out the kitchen silently. I hop up to sit on the countertop. "Look, we need to talk." She looks over at me, her dark eyes hard and focused. "What we're going into…how much do you know about vampire lore?" She narrows her eyes suspiciously. "Romania is the seat of power for three major vampiric clans-"

"The Dracul, the Black Masses of Cain and your Family, the Cult of Aurelius. Looking forward to a big family reunion?"

"Well now. You hit the nail on the head right on." I say calmly and easily. She freezes.

"What do you mean?"

"That's exactly what I'm afraid of."

"Vampire, what are you talking about?" I grin. Okay, now I see why Angel and Giles and the rest of those creeps are always so cryptic. It's fun as hell pissing about with people who don't like you!

"I'm glad you're the one that Xander's bringing along." Cal looks very confused. "Calida, I don't care what you think about me or the rest of the squad. As long as you do your job and help keep the world safe from the forces of darkness and stay out of my way you and I are square."

"So, why are you-?"

"Happy that you're coming along? You like Xander. Any fool could see that. You're a fighter and you like the most important person in my life at the moment. I'm going to be counting on you to look after him. Like a bodyguard."

"What about you?"

"I can take care of myself. I'm a Master in my own right with a Claimed that is the right hand of Buffy Summers; the Vampire Slayer and we're traveling with an soldier-slayer who happens to be completely loyal to her Senior Watcher and focuses her job to be his in-the-field bodyguard."

"You're banking on any enemy of yours or ours will think twice before attacking us unprovoked."

"Yeah, something like that. There is also a chance that we'll run into the Black Masses of Cain."

"I've heard about them but there wasn't a lot of information."

"No. There wouldn't be. Incredibly secretive they're descendants of the Childe of the first woman, Lillith and the first son of her husband and his second wife, Cain. Most of the vampiric law came from the Black Masses of Cain. It is said that, when the world was young and hot and ruled by demons, Lillith, in a last effort to spite God and Adam, mated with Cain, who killed his brother, Abel. Lillith gave birth to twin boys…one being pure evil and could not die…the first thing this Childe did was attack his brother and drink his blood. Cain, fearing his sins would continue into the next generation, pulled his two sons apart." My blood is pounding, lost in the origins of my kind. The history is in the blood. Blood screaming to do its will. "Horrified, Cain thrust Lillith and the Childe from his heart and hearth. He raised the mortal child and that child married the three daughters of Eve and Adam. From their children came the human race. But the Childe gave its blood to Lillith and she fledged into a demon and together they stole the children of man from their beds and raised them and turned them. The vampire race grew alongside the humans until the Shadowmen grew in the knowledge of the occult that the Gregori-"

"Gregori?" Xander was leaning against the doorframe. Sneaky little blighter.

"Angels. Real ones. They call them the Watchers. If you look into the mythologies of the Judeo-Christian-Islamic traditions they were the Angels sent to Earth, by God, to teach the human race how to survive and thrive. The Gregori were lead by Lucifer when he was still Samu-el. Lucifer was a-a sort of nickname that the other angels gave him, the Morning Star because of his bright armor. He was the one in charge of teaching humanity everything they needed to survive but he and the other Gregori taught the children of the planet Earth two things that they need never know about…warfare and magick. Some even transubstatiated and bred with human woman to create the Nephilim...who, according to some metaphysical intellectuals,used their inherent magical ablities and claimed themselves gods." I look at my lover.

"The Shadowmen took the knowledge of the Angels and pulled from the darkness that threatened to overwhelm them and created a girl, a child really. She had the strength and the skill to fight the Vampires, Demons, and Forces of Darkness. She was the Slayer. And so it went…the human race, magic, vampires, and the Slayers have been intertwined since the beginning and so came the down-slide of the Old Ones, Illyria and her ilk. Such is the history of the Black Masses of Cain or the Cainites, the true vampires."

"But, Aneirin and Dracula found other ways to become immortal. Different diseases with the same symptoms so all three are called vampire. Dracula is the bastard son of Prince Vladimir Dracul, cursed by God to live the ages because of the crimes of his father and Anierin was brought back to life, as she claims, by her mother Morgan le Fay. They're not technically vampires at all. It's why my face gets all wrinkly and Dracula has all those extra Gypsy tricks. True vampires, the Black Masses of Cain are rare and found in a small portion of the world. Couple hundred square miles, surrounding the Black Sea. The Dracul's domain is from the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains and extents north through Ukraine into Russia. The Aurelius extend from the western walls of the Carpathians to England, Ireland and, what is known among the Nosferatu as the New World."

"America and stuff." Xander says, clarifying.

"Yeah, but you got to realize…most vampires don't like change. They're musty old things that shrink away from the light and anything new. The Aurelius were always forward thinkers…which I guess is explained in how Aneirin got her immortality…somehow. Anyways, they were the ones that traveled all over the world...and had flags to boot." Xander grins at the Eddie Izzard joke. I stare into Xander's eye. "Most of the vamps in the world are Aurelius some way or another."

"How do you know so much about all this?" Xander asks. I shrug.

"Some of it is inherit…stuff that every vampire wakes with and other stuff I picked up here and there. Nothing major." I swing my feet to hit the cupboards with my heels.

"He's lying." Calida's shrewd. I'll give her that.

"Finish packing?" I ask Xander.

"Almost. Heard Calida out here. Hey."

"Hey." she says back. I wave him back into the bedroom.

"Alright, you said your hello's now quit procrastinating and finish packing. We only have all day to do it." Xander stuck his tongue out at me and went away. Once his footsteps faded and the bedroom door click shut did I turn back to the slayer. "I want you to protect him. No matter what."

"Alright."

"Enemy territory…I might need to pretend to be something I'm not."

"Evil?" I glare at her.

"In charge. We both know that's Xander in this little set-up."

"So what do you want me to do?"

"Got a sword?"

Once I give Calida the lowdown of everything I could rack my brain of with the situation that is Romania I wander, quite languorously, into our bedroom (the bed has the red and black bedclothes on it today) where Xander's packing our duffles. "Hey, finished?"

"Just about." I sit on the dresser. "Don't lean against the mirror, Spike." I sit up straight. Then I realize that I actually did what he told me to do and lean back again.

"I love you."

"And you'll be responsible for the broken mirror."

"Eh, what's seven years to a vampire?" Xander looks over at me with that angry, frustrated look. I grin and he rolls his eye.

"I hate you."

"I love you."

"Incorrigible."

"Well, yeah." He shoves another shirt into his duffle. "C'mere." after a minute he gives up trying to ignore me and walks over. I pull him in so that my legs are bracketing his flanks. I run my hands up his sides and over his chest and wrap my arms around his neck. He rests his hands on the tops of my thighs. I wrinkle my nose. "Why do you smell like sawdust?"

"Sandalwood soap."

"Oh." Awkward silence. Bah.

"What do you want, Spike?" Hmm. So many answers to that question. "And keep in mind that I'm not having sex with you when Calida is right outside…or on the plane." Dammit.

"Come on! I always wanted to join the mile high club." I scratch my nails down his chest, making sure I get his nipples. He grabs my wrists and glares at my lecherous (I can admit) grin.

"Then you should have had sex with Angel when that girl, Fred, was dying or on your trip to Rome…something about a head and Buffy?" Yeaaah. That was cold. And, ew, sex with Angel? Hell no thanks.

"That's cold…bitch." Xander did this thing with his tongue and his teeth that I'm pretty sure he learnt from me and how sucktastic is it when your lover uses your own tactics against you? I lock my legs around his hips. I drop my voice a few octaves. "Lover, don't make me ravish you." Beh, that even tasted bad coming off my tongue. Xander and I look at each other. We snort. We pull it in and then snort again. Nope. Trying to be adults here. We giggle. Somewhere in the back of my mind the voice that sounds like a combination of Angel, Giles, Willow and Buffy goes 'real mature, Spike' which makes me giggle some more. Xander is grinning lthat thirteen-year-old-boy-avoiding-trouble grin of his and crashes his lips against mine. Mmm. Hands are at the small of my back and a warm body pressing into mine and an extra tongue in my mouth. Life couldn't be better. I pull back. He grins and his mouth follows mine, a hand at my chest and another on my back. I grab his shoulder with one hand and press against his neck with the other. As much as I would love to continue this little make-out session because, hey, Xander's a lot of things...lousy kisser is not one of them…anyway there's something I need to tell him. "Xander."

"Hmm?" he says as his tongue and teeth worry my lower lip.

"Need to talk."

"Mhmbo?" Note: it is extremely difficult for anyone speak when one's lips are smushed against something else, like say a vampire's lips. I'm just saying. Let's try that again…I nip at his jaw so that he can talk and I can feed my need to taste Xander-flesh. It's a win-win situation. "What about, SpIKE?" Mmm, interesting key change there. Wonder if it had anything to do with me biting down on the bit of skin below his ear with blunt teeth. It's a possibility. My fingers were in his hair with strands getting under my nails in that painful, sensual way of pulling hair against its natural grain. "Spike? What…talk…about?" We have this effect on the other where we both sort of become incoherent; sometimes with sex and sometimes with rage and sometimes with plain contentment. God, I hope this is one of the times with the sex. Hmm. Xander's tongue suck Must. "Spike!" I had run a hand down the front of his jeans to palm a very interested-"SPIKE!" AH! Bugger just screams in my ear….in a not horny way. Ow. Vampires have sensitive hearing. Ow. That ringing going to last for like a month. My hands are grabbed so and my boyfriend pulls back enough so I can't really reengaged him in the fun. Grr. Stupid Xander.

"What?" I manage to sound put-out and whiny even in my own head.

"You wanted to talk to me about something." I look at him silently. Oh. Right. Must have got distracted somehow. "Spike? What is it?" I run my tongue over the backs of my teeth, trying to think of how to phrase what I want into something that isn't…well, something I would say. "What's amatter? You have closed-off face." Here it goes…

"Uh" Well, that was not a completely successful attempt. I close my mouth again to rethink my attack of question.

"Spike?" He lays a warm hand along my left temple and ear. I lean into the contact like a cat, my eyes closing slightly. I lick my lips when I hear the blood pounding in the palm. No. Not pounding. Blood only pounds when adrenaline is in it. It rushes. Like when you place your ear to a conch shell. It's like the ocean. Whoosh-pause-whoosh. A thumb rubs across the scar on my eyebrow. I open my eyes to see his big brown one wide and dilated. I open my mouth to speak but nothing comes out. "William?" he tries. I lay a hand on the bitemark on his neck. My bitemark. My Claim. I run my thumb over his jugular, feeling that whoosh-pause-whoosh start to feel more like buhump-whoosh-pause-buhump-whoosh-pause-bubump-bubump-bubump. "Spike?" I can feel his voice against my fingers as his vocal cords thrum with air under the soft skin of his neck. I run my thumb up and over his chin so that I'm grabbing his throat.

"I need to drink from you." Somewhere…in my mind…I know that there's reason for it. I know there's a reason I need to bleed him. Something about Romania and having a mark that's not scarred over but I can't think past my very present need and his blood. His scent, his skin, his warmth and arousal and the bubumpbump-bubumpbump that his pulse has become. "Please?"

"Alright." That word shut me down for a second. That acceptance of his stops me almost completely. I scoot closer to him and pull him in more so that his breath heats my face and for the moment I have body heat.

"Don't you want to know why?"

"There's a reason?"

"Yeah."

"Okay." There was something in the way he said that that made me pause.

"Okay what?"

"Okay, you can drink from me." My brain shuts down. I can't ever remember Xander being this compliant, ever. "Spike," he says. "quit trying to figure it out and just do it." I've nothing to say to that and he smiles. "Did I take the wind out of your sails?" Unapologetic.

"Well, yeah." It loses something when I don't have to fight for it. He laughs. "Oh, shut it." I refuse to admit to sounding like a petulant child because that is exactly the opposite of what my voice sounded like when I said that. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. He kisses my lips chastely and rubs the back of my neck with his fingers. An arm wraps around my torso so that I'm forced to grab his shoulders. My nose is pressed into his neck right about the healing bitemark. My true face slides into place and my fangs descend into his skin. The skin is tougher for the scar tissue but the blood is just as sweet as last time. After that first initial burst of blood I start pulling at the wound, pulling my fangs out just slightly so that the blood rushes freely into my mouth that's locked around the twin puncture wounds, creating a suction so none of the liquid escapes down his neck. I moan as the fresh, hot blood starts to go down my throat. Xander's taste is almost too sweet, all love and acceptance and sunlight and, my god, his pancreas must be working overtime. Note to self, make sure Xander works out more so he doesn't get diabetes. Boy eats too many twinkies and sweets. My arms wrap around his neck and he's rubbing my back. Tastes too good that I have to force myself to pull out and hold the wound close with my lips and licking to make sure it closes properly. Finally I pull back, panting, more than a little dazed. I lay my head on his shoulder, my bones grinding back into my human face.

"Weird." he says suddenly.

"Mm?" I'm well-fed and sleepy with a side of slight horniness and male. In other words, who cares what he wants to say now?

"I can see myself in the mirror but not you and I have this huge hickey and I'm holding air. It's freaky." I lean back against the mirror.

"Told you not to put mirrors in our room."

"Hey, it's hot to watch nothing have sex with me in the mirror…on occasion."

"Kinky whelp."

"Sleepy vampire."

"Mmm. Tasty."

"Told you I was a nummy treat." I grin at the old joke between us.

"Moist and delicious." I jib.

"And you better not forget it, buddy."

"I won't." I glance down at the front of his jeans.

"Forget it. I've donated blood."

"Really? When?"

"Ass."

"Yeah, but I'm your ass." I grin.

"You're my bitch. Get me orange juice."

* * *

**_Author After Talk_**: Best line I've ever written…ever. "You're my bitch. Get me orange juice." Headache of a chapter but I'm happy with it. Up to twelve outlined.

Tropic


	4. Being a Badass is a Way of Life

_**Sometime**__**Around**__**Midnight**_

_**By**_: Tropicwhale

_**Disclaimer**_: Drill. You knows it.

_**Author Talk**_: My dog died last weekend. I'm sort of... This story is for Pepper. Rest In Peace, puppy.

* * *

**Chapter Four:  
**_**Being a Badass is a Way of Life**_

We were packed three to a row on the two hour flight and Spike was drinking more and more liquor the closer to Romania we got. He glared at the flight attendant when she mentioned that, maybe, he had had enough and she scurried to get him another mini-bottle of Jack Daniel's. When we got to Romania it was hell on Earth…mostly. I hate airports. As per Spike asking us nicely (read beg) we fan out into a mini-Delta with Calida and I flanking Spike and slightly behind him. I walking on his left so that my blindside was covered by Spike and Calida which made sure no one could sneak up on me or us from my left. I wore my best Nick Fury turtleneck and black jeans and Calida wore a black tank top with black jeans and a black leather collar Spike had dug up. She also had black leather wrist bands and an empty sheath strapped to her back. Spike wore his usual combat boots, trench, black tee shirt and jeans with a red button down and a smallish silver chain around his neck. His hair was slicked back and his swagger was turned up to the full notch. We make our way down to baggage claim and he grabs both mine and his duffles and pass them both to me and leaves Calida to grab her bag and a box which she immediately rips open and, to the apparent fear of the surrounding crowd, one of my broadswords. She grins in delight and slides the sword home into its sheath. Security is already converging on us at the same time I see Andrew. Spikes nods to me as I wave the young (and Annoying) Watcher over. "Xander! Spike! Girl I've never met before! Welcome to Bucharest!" Cal gives him the once over and looks back at the converging guards. Spike looks at me and I nod. Spike and I had a long involved talk with Calida about exactly what we should do in any give situation while in Romania. He drilled us. He was really quite nervous. He's tries to hide it but it's Spike...Mr. Spock he is not. Andrew opens his mouth again, the idiot. "So…you guys, like, match. Heh. What's that about? Spike! I thought you were in LA!"

"Let's go." Spike says and starts walking through the crowds.

"Tell you about it later, Andrew." I say and grab the younger man's arm to move him along. The security gaurds are starting to run after us. Spike leads our group outside and stops to stare at a series of posters on a wall. "What is it, Master?" I ask. Andrew goes to open his mouth and I cover his mouth with my hand. "Shut up. It could mean our tails if you don't play along." Andrew shifts and looks at me nervously.

"It reads 'SEE RURAL ROMANIA: HOMELAND OF THE VAMPIRES'." Spike scans the area. We're getting looks. Fucking Harmony and her reality show. Spike sees another poster and stalks over to it, pulling off the wall to read it properly. We jog to catch up to me. "ALL SLAYERS SHOULD BE SHOT AND KILLED ON SIGHT. STOP THE ENEMIES OF OUR COUNTRY's GREATEST ASSESTS'." I can hear sirens in the distance and security has caught up with us, pulling out guns. One shouts at us in Romanian.

"What did he say?" Calida asks.

"He says to drop our weapons and come quietly." Spike grins a horrible grin at the mockicer. "_Vezi, asta va fi o problema. Nu ma pot scadea al meu_." He says, his face going all ridgy and fangful. Some of the security guards falter but the one aiming a gun at Calida doesn't. Real cops show up and then there's a lot more guns pointing at us.

"Maybe, she should put down the sword?" Andrew asks hopefully. Spike sneers at him. I put my finger to my lip to get him to be quiet.

"Calida, don't you dare…pull it." The vampire orders and the slayer unsheathes sword and sneers at the guns. "Xander, my Claimed…do you think Dracula will be pissed off if his favorite human is detained by these…_people_?" He asks casually. More cops look hesitate at the name of...my Master? This is so going to get confusing fast. But I could see where he was going with this and played along

"If something were to happen to me, yeah. Dracula would be pissed…isn't that why you got me the bodyguard, Master?" He glances at me, shit-eating grin on his face and everything and shifts back to his human face. He loves me. I knows it. I love him too.

"Should I start defending him?" Calida asks.

"Hold that thought, dear. OI!" Spike says and then raises his voice. "_Orice tine de ton vorbesc engleza?_"

"I do." A police officer steps forward, slightly lowering the gun and eyeing the slayer with the sword.

"Don't look at her. Look at me. I'm the one in charge and if she attacks it will be on my orders and nothing else." The police officer focuses on Spike, his gun raising just slightly. The vampire smirks. I'm suddenly remembering my junior year of high school and-crap. This could get ugly fast. "Do you really think shooting a vampire will help? I guarantee you…it'll just piss me off." The policeman licks his dry lips.

"Blessed bullets." Spike raises his eyebrows and looks over at me. Blessed bullets. We never thought about that. I mean...we've used holy water filled supersoakers and then there are the crosses thing. Maybe it was a holy objects thing across the board? Cuz, that be cool. Spike sneers then and throw out his arms.

"Let's test it then…" That idiot! What if it works? Doesn't he realize they probably tested it before giving it to street police? Dumbass! And what about collataral damage? A blessed bullet is still a bullet! It'd still kill me! Or Calida!...or Andrew. "Take your best shot….create an international incident." The gun was shaking slightly. A few other officers shift. Obviously they understood English as well...or it could be the set of fangs. "I'm William the Bloody…Spike and I am the Master of Paris here visiting the seat of my clan, the Cult of Aurelius, on vacation and to look after some allies. Delaying my plans by any stretch of time will be a fast way to start a blood bath the likes of which haven't been seen since Count Vladimir Dracul was living." He's back in Game Face and growling. "Now. Lower your weapons or I will send the lot of you home to your families in small boxes." A ripple went through the crowd surrounding us. "NOW!" Half the security and police put up their guns and the other half retrain their weapons on us. He snarls. I can tell he's being impatient with not getting his way. I know that snarl. I hear that snarl all the time...in bed...with rope...it's fun to play 'Tease the Tied-up Vampire'.

Anyway. I should help my boyfriend...before he ends up feeling guilty for months on end. A bloodbath was sooo not what we need right now.

"Spike?" I ask. I approach my lover and lay my hand on his shoulder, stepping into him a little. "Master? It'll take me forever to get the blood out of our clothes…remember last time?" I can see him fighting a smile. He looks at me and smiles a smile full of fangs, obviously pleased with my make-believe. Of course, I've had to wash enough blood out of mine, his, Buffy's, Willow's, Calida's, Patricia's, Kenya's, Alex's, Mary's, Dawn's, Ren-you get my point.

"I can kill one without much bloodspray…what about the one that talks?" he asks. I pretend to thing about it.

"Yeah. Okay." The officer's eyes widen when Spike's suddenly pass the point of his gun and has him immobilized.

"Oh, pet." I don't need to see Spike's face to know that grin he's got on his face. The officer looks scared shitless. Spike's nothing he's ever dealt with. One of a kind. Of course, Spike wouldn't really hurt anybody. But, no one here needs to be aware of the whole soul thing. Right? "So afraid. But, let's not turn this into a Francis Ford Cupola film and you call off yours and I'll call off mine. I've places to be. Schedule and all that." The police shouts rapidly at the other officers and then a sergeant standing in the back of the crowd counters the order. The English-speaking guy whimpers. Spike's face probably isn't very pleasent to look at right now. My boyfriend grabs the gun from limp fingers and toss the guy aside. Spike then tosses the gun over his shoulder because, yeah, like he needs a gun. I have to dodge cuz it was coming my way...fucker needs to learn to look before he starts flinging loaded weapons over his shoulder. Spike then jumps clear over the heads of the crowd. It was pretty impressive. Unnecessary but impressive. I smile. It's not a good smile but it's a smile.

The crowd parts to look where the vampire has gone. I stare at the officers and they lower their guns more. Obviously, Spike's the real threat and not the chick with the broadsword. The sergeant is struggling but Spike's got him in a full nelson and then slams into a police car. The man pulls out and cross that I can tell is shaking from ten feet away. Spike squats down and he's in profile, all ridges and planes and black leather fanning out around him like some horrible winged creature from the Brothers Grimm. Spike wraps his right hand around the cross and it starts to smoke. It's obvious that the sergeant wets himself in fear. Spike pulls the man toward him by the cross and sneers down at him. The white hat in me rears its ugly head. Why isn't anyone trying to help the guy? Spike let's go of the cross and grabs the man by his throat, speaking softly to him in Romanian. I can't hear what he's saying and it occurs to me that maybe I don't want to know. The man is shaking so hard that I'm afraid he's having a seizure. The sergeant shouts out an order and the guns go down. Spike stands and says something to Calida in Spanish. She puts the sword back into the sheath. I start forward with the other two following me and the crowd parts to let us through to the vampire. I feel a swell of pity toward the man cowering next to the front wheel of the car. Spike turns toward Andrew and asks if he has a car. He nods and leads us to it. Spike and I sit in the back while Calida sits in the front with Andrew and our luggage goes into the trunk. When we're safely away from the airport I turn to my boyfriend.

"So, Spike. What did you say to the sergeant anyway?" He looks over at me and give me his innocent, 'I'm not up to anything' look. Yeah, that look. The pure bullshit one.

"Oh. Nothing really." I gives me a dissapproving look and shake my head. It's probably better I don't know

* * *

_**Author After Talk**_: :)

Romanian translation

_Vezi, asta va fi o problema. Nu ma pot scadea al meu-_ See, that's going to be a problem. I can't drop mine.

_Orice tine de ton vorbesc engleza?_ - Any of you prats speak English?

Tropic


	5. The Bad Side of Fangfiction

_**Sometime**__**Around**__**Midnight**_

_**By**_: Tropicwhale

_**Disclaimer**_: This is as mine as the sky.

_**Author Talk**_: Sitting next to my dad talking about the stock market….thus the fanfiction.

* * *

**Chapter Five  
**_**The Bad Side of Fangfiction**_

It was about five minutes of Andrew weaving in and out of the insanity that is traffic in Bucharest that broke me. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. This time. I promise….and mean it. Just this once. What was I talking about again? Oh yeah. Knew that. "Oi! Wells! What's going on?" Xander looks over at me. I shrug. I don't do the sit quiet until all is revealed thing. Never did. And the few times I was forced to never ended well for anyone. So why make a leopard wear a zebra trench coat? It's just tacky.

Note to self: One day, kill Harmony for putting those sorts of thoughts in my head. Five minutes with that bird is akin to a lifetime of binge drinking and mary-jane use. It kills brain cells.

Anyway, back to the story being told, yeah?

"Wha-ehem-what?" Andrew starts to squeak and then corrects his voice. I raise my eyebrow at the rearview mirror. Sometimes, when one needs to nonverbally communicate distain, not having a reflection is a bad thing. That and not being able to tell when I have roots.

"What's the deal? Why did I have to threaten a third of the city's population just so we can get to your car?" I watch the back of Andrew's head shift as he tries and corrects his posture and clears his throat.

"Spike, no one asked you to come along. This is Slayer business." I laugh outright.

"Mate, that sort of shit never works when Angel, Xander, or Giles uses it and it damn-well doesn't work when you try so give up the ghost and tell us what's going on."

"Xand-errrrr!" the blond shrimp whines.

"You heard the vampire, Andrew, spill." I look over at my lover with such a grin of affection he just has to reach over and slaps my arm. I grab the hand that slaps me and try to bite his wrist. He pulls it away with a gruff "Cut it out, Spike." I vamp-out and stick my tongue out at him. I shift back and focus on our driver.

"Andrew."

"You called me 'mate' and when you two get so chummy?"

"Matter of expression." I say at the same time Xander exhales

"Paris."

"Weird fucking city." I add.

"Yeah… what with the lights."

"And the lovers."

"Eiffel Tower."

"Catacombs."

"The Louvre"

"What is with those pyramids?"

"I don't know. Someone was smoking pot." I laugh. "Yes! Score one for the Xan-man."

"BOYS!" Cal suddenly yells. "Explain quickly, Watcher, before they get sidetracked again."

"I'll so get you later for that." I whisper to my boy. Calida whips around and glares at me.

"Shush." she said.

"He started it." I point my finger at my boyfriend.

"I don't care." The slayer says. "I'm finishing it."

"Andrew." Xander says. Andrew takes a deep breath.

"'mafraidI''tknowwhatelsetodo!" The car rockets forward. I blink. Xander…blinks. I'm sure Calida blinks. Andrew could be a fucking pearl diver with his breath control.

"Andrew. Say that again. This time with breathing in between the words. Helps with the comprehension." Xander says. Andrew takes a deep breath.

"My" breath "slayers" breath "arein" breath "jail" inhale "for" inhale "being" inhale "slayers" inhale "cuz" inhale "thisentire." Gasp. The car roars underneath us. "country" Inhale. Exhale. Inhale "is pro-vampire." pant. Pant. "and I'm on the run again and andandand"

"ANDREW!" I roar suddenly. The boy lets up on the gas and the car coasts a little. "Breath. Take a deep breath in." He inhales. "Good. Let it out." Whooosh. "Alright. Inhale." A gasp of breath. "Exhale slowly. On my count. One-Two-Three-Four-Five. Good, Andrew. Very good. We're here now. We can take care of it." Andrew nods feverishly. "Good. Now focus drive. Get us back home safely and we'll come up with a plan to help your slayers and you from there."

"Okay."

"Good." I look over and Xander is giving me this look like he's trying to figure something out. I mouth 'what?' he leans over and gestures me closer. I lean over almost completely because I never wear a seatbelt (never saw the point being dead and all). He cups his hand over my ear and his hot breath tickles.

"Thought you said you couldn't do thrall." I pull back to look at him.

"I can't." he gestures at Andrew with a nod of his head. "Don't have the attention span for it." He gestures me back in.

"I've had you, Dru and Aneirin in my head. This isn't the first time I've seen you pull stuff. Is it possible you've been able to do it subconsciously?" I shrug.

"I dunno. I've never took much to psychology. I remember when quacks would prescribe masturbation and smoking to high-strung women." Xander looks like he wants to say 'give me a break'. "I'm serious. They prescribed smoking to my mother after Alexander died."

"That's psychotic."

"Exactly. The whole point of psychotherapy is to suppress. Which, to be far, there are individuals with tendencies and thought processes that need to be suppressed. It does serve a purpose but the tactics are still barbaric." Andrew glances in his rearview mirror.

"Spike, when did you get all smart?" I smile and chuckle a little.

"I've always been smart. I just don't show it. Keeps people guessing to what I do know and if they think I'm dumb then they tend to look over me. It works for certain things."

"Like murdering people?" Xander asks.

"That…and messing with you Scoobies. You lot have too many insecurities. You all need therapy. With twenty-thousand volts."

"Funny, Spike." Xander deadpans.

"Better funny then funny looking like you."

"Fuck you."

"Please."

"Spike."

"Xander." My lover huffs in agitation.

"Spike."

"Xander." We stare at each other and I raise my eyebrow, arms crossing across my chest.

"Love you."

"Love you too."

"WHAT?" The car swerves and I'm grabbing the door on my side and Xander who's suddenly crashing into my side. Horns honk in the night and Andrew rights the car quickly. I look over at Xander as he rights himself.

"Are you okay, Xan?"

"Yeah. Andrew, what the hell?"

"You-you and he-huh? What? Huh? I can't drive anymore." He pulls off onto the shoulder and turns off the car. We sit in silence until Andrew unbuckles his seatbelt and gets out of the car. A whoosh of cold night enters the car and I can smell other vampires in the distance. I should have known my little bit of fun at the airport would have garnered some attention from the locals. Subtle I was not. Andrew marches in front of the headlights and rips open Calida's door. "You drive." Calida looks back at me and I nod. She unbuckles her seatbelt slowly and slides over the emergency brake into the driver's seat. She then reaches over and arranges the sword so she could reach it easily if she had to. She shut the driver's side door and started up the engine. Andrew slide into the vacate seat and shut the door. "Drive on this road until we get out of the city. I'll give you more directions from there." She pulls back onto the road and starts driving. Andrew turned back and faced us looking surprisingly serious. I went for nonchalant. I'm not sure what Xander went for as I was too busy being nonchalant. "Oakey." Andrew drawls, trying for something like my drawl but coming out confused and Californian instead of cool and British. "What the fuck?" I can't help it. I chuckle.

"Don't know what you're on about, Andrew." I say, drawing out the words 'on' and 'about' and shorting his name.

"You two just said that you love each other!"

"Did we?" I turn and look at Xander. Xander looks at me and grins at my raised eyebrow and smirk.

"I think we did."

"Well, damn. That's sudden. We should be in a relationship if we feel that way about each other."

"I agree."

"We should move in together."

"Have kids."

"Pick out drapery."

"Totally." Xander's trying desperately to keep a straight face but can't quite manage it. "Oh, SPIKE!" he says in a sloppily passionate tone. I laugh.

"Xander!" I mimic the tone then leap into his arms and we kiss. Or at least we try. We end up clonking our heads together and bursting out in laughter. "Oh no! We can't seem to kiss!"

"Our love is surely doomed!" Xander says, cracking up. "We should sit in a corner and brood over our bad luck to find love and then lose it."

"Andrew will have to write sappy fanfiction in which we work out and I suddenly become human and a wimp!"

"What do you mean 'become a wimp'? You are a wimp."

"Fuck you."

"No. Men aren't my bag of chips and anal sex gives me the whiggins."

"Oh no! Yet another hurtle to our relationship! We've a love the world has never seen the like of and it'll be completely platonic because of your lack of gayness!"

"Oh the humanity of it all!"

"I'll turn you! Vampires don't care what we fuck as long as we get off!"

"But-but, I'll lose my soul and no longer be the man you felt in love with!"

"I'll have Willow lock it into you! We can be together forever."

"Oh Spike!"

"Oh Xander!" We embrace, cracking up. My sides hurt and I chance a glance at Andrew.

"You guys are just….Guh! So mean!" He turns around and crosses his arms to pout. I make sure he's completely ignoring us and then kiss Xander quickly with a brush of my tongue before sliding back into my own seat. We spend the rest of the drive glancing at each other and Andrew and trying not to giggle conspiratorially.

"Oi, Harris."

"Yeah, Fangless?"

"Speaking of Red, I think we need a trained witch in Paris."

"Why?"

"Just popped into my head when we were waiting for Patricia to give birth and hasn't let me go yet. We could use someone who knows their protection spells."

"Got anyone in mind?"

"Uh, Amber? Tara's sister?"

"Tara had a sister?" Andrew asks suddenly.

"Tara didn't know about Amber." I explain. "It's sort of complicated."

"Oh." My head swings back to look at my lover.

"So? What do you think?"

"Yeah. Okay. We'll take care of that when we get back to Paris."

"Okay." I lean back at look out the window. "Spike?"

"Yeah?" I look back at him and he has a grin on his face that can only mean trouble.

"I love you!" I laugh a little.

"I love you, too!" He laughs. "Marry me?"

"Oh shut up!" Andrew yells. Xander and I roar in laughter.

* * *

_**Author After Talk**_: I was reading bad fanfiction and thought "I need to make fun of this crap." because there was so much of it while trying to advance a story while I'm completely dry of inspiration. I need to geek out on something. I don't care what but I do.

Tropic


	6. And That's what you call Ironic

**_Sometime Around Midnight_**

**_by_**: Tropicwhale

_**Disclaimer**_: What? Mine? Really?.....That's cruel. Why would you do that? Why would you say that they are mine when they aren't? That's just mean.

**_Author Talk_**: I'm watching Disney's Hercules and pointing out how wrong they got the myths. It's a good geek-out session.

* * *

**Chapter Six**:  
_And That's what you call Ironic_

The farmhouse that Andrew directed Calida to drive to was about as rundown as rundown could get. I was suddenly grateful for HQ in Paris seeing as there was now five working safehouses filled with slayers all over Paris and the surrounding countryside modeled after the Slayer's Web in Baltimore where Patricia, our squad leader, was born and raised. "This is your safehouse?" Spike scoffs and frankly, I understood the sentiment. There was a broad porch that had sunken in and collapsed due to rot and termites and every second story window in the three story building was boarded up. Andrew leds the way up the steps which creaked dangerously under our feet.

"Our original safehouse was compromised." Andrew says and unlocks the new looking doorknob. "Welcome. Come in. And stuff." The blond Watcher lead us through. Spike looks over at me with his nose scrunched up. It must smell really bad for him; as it was it was no bed of roses for me. "Uh, there's a working bathroom if you don't mind cold showers and I managed to knick a couple of blankets and stuff so it's not that cold." Andrew turns and faces us, shrugging with his hands in his pockets. "And vampires can't get in…" Spike glares at him "Unless they are invited. I made sure that it was a long driveway so any light isn't seen by the road and I'm really careful about coming here. So what are we going to do about my charges? They're good girls. They're not hardened criminals like me and Spike. They can't handle prison." Spike amps up the glarage at Andrew. "Not that you're a criminal anymore. And neither am I. We're reformed!" Spike snorts and walks away to examine the house.

"Calida, why don't you bring in our bags and check the grounds?" I suggest.

"Of course, Xander." She turns and leaves, drawing her sword as she goes.

"So what's the real story here, Andrew?" The younger man looks at me. I cross my arms.

"I told the truth. My slayers are in jail." I sit down against a wall and just look at him.

"And what about the lie about the Grimmoire?" Andrew shifts and slides down next to me. "How'd you know about that?"

"Originally I heard about it from Renee." That freezes me. "I'm sorry she died, btw." Mentioning my ex-girlfriend who I was dating at the time Spike re-appeared in my life. I still feel a little guilty over getting with Spike only a few days after the funeral (3). "I was working stuff in Italy and there was this thing….with the Immortal. He was…He kicked me and the girls out when Harmony killed that Slayer on television."

"So what? This is you trying to reestablished a base?"

"Not very successfully." I nod once.

"It's okay. Maybe we can talk to Dracula and if that doesn't work then we'll get you a base in Germany. Low vamp pop but high werewolf and sorcery population and you can always branch out over borders to stop any nests." Andrew nods rapidly. "I'll talk to the Immortal myself if I have to. We'll get you straightened out. " Spike scoffs from my blind side.

"Don't even think about talking to the so-called Prince of Darkness unless he's going to pay me my eleven pounds back and the Immortal's a piece of crap bastard." I turn to look at him. The vampire points at the young male. "And don't think you fooled me for a second with that fake Buffy."

"I don't….know…what you're talking about."Andrew has shifty eyes.

"You're lucky I don't tell Angel about it. Because, the Immortal? Soooo not Buffy's type. Also? She didn't' smell like Buffy. I didn't say anything because I figure….Buffy's not going to be partying it up in Rome when there are all these little slayers tramping about the world. She's going to be responsible and gathering them up. I had your game in an instant. Also? Using your charges as fake dates? Lame." he pauses, making a face and sticking his tongue out like he had tastes something bad. He smacks his lips a couple of time and runs his tongue along the roof of his mouth and out between his lips. "God. That tasted bad. Who knew insipid American colloquial was contagious?"

"HEY!" Andrew and I said at the same time Calida walks through the door.

"I left the bags in the car. There's something out there. Multiple points of contact. ETA three minutes." CrapCrapCrapCrap. Spike's looking at me from my blindspot. I can tell. "Plan B?" she and I turns to Spike.

"Yeah. Xan-pet, gimme your phone." I pull out my cell from my coat pocket and toss it over to him. He has to move forward and to the right to catch but he does. He dials. "Andrew, do you have anything to pack? Cuz you should go get it." He holds my phone to his ear. "Go." He points down the hall. "_Da. Am chemat trei ore in urma privind o deschide-s-a incheiat rezervare pentru un apartament?_" Spike wanders away and Andrew looks at me. Calida leans next to a dusty window and looks out into the night with her sheathed sword in one hand for easy drawing.

"You better do what he told you to do. Go get your stuff." Andrew stands and disappears into the gloom of the house. Spike wanders back to my side and pulls me up.

"I'm driving."

"Cause you know where we're going and we don't?"

"I was going to say I don't trust you three behind the wheel but yeah, that works too."

"You haven't let me drive since we got together, Spike."

"Haven't I?" He turns wide innocent eyes at me

"I am capable of driving, Spike." His innocent look becomes disbelieving. "I am." And disbelieving turns speculative.

"When was the last time you took your yearly driving test?" Ummmm. Dammit. "That's what I thought. Until you go and get renewed I'm driving. End of story."

"Whatever. And I know for a fact you were fooled by the decoy Buffy."

"Shut it, Harris." Andrew comes out of the back of the house carrying a suitcase and a knapsack.

"So what are you guys talking about?"

"They were talking about driving. I'm personally more concerned with the…" Calida speaks then falls silent, counting to herself. "four vampires that I can see."

"What are they doing?" Spike asks.

"They're just standing there." she replies.

"That's a good thing." my lover says.

"Why?" Andrew asks.

"Because….this isn't a home; at least not to us. They can walk right in."

"So…would they know that?" Andrew asks. Spike grins at him and the shadows make him look far more sinister then he's been since he got his Initiative chip waaaay back when.

"We're foreigners in their land." Spike steps to the other side of the window across from Calida. "They know."

"So why…wait? Why not destroy us where we stand." I ask.

"My display at the airport."

"I thought that was to keep the humans from killing me?" Calida looks over at him. He smirks.

"It was. Partly. But a Master comes into town, unless he's a reason to stay quiet, he's going to make a scene. I left people alive but that was more so that there would be witnesses."

"And your soul wouldn't let you." I add. Spike smiles at me and my heart does that skippy-Spike thing.

"Well our friends out there don't know about that and we should keep that bit quiet."

"Why?" Andrew shifts.

"Souled vampires are anomalies and don't approve of other vampires. We're outcasts. Weak. Little better than food but worse because other vampires can't get nutrition out of us. I'd be staked as soon as looked at and you all would be left without protection."

"What about Dracula?" Andrew asks. Spike shrugs.

"He'd might protect Xander but you're a Slayer and a Watcher." Spike turns to look at the younger man and smiles a smile most unpleasant. "Death would be the least and kindest thing he could do. Remember the sisters, Xander?" I shiver.

"Yeah. No, thanks."

"So what? You're our only hope, Obi-Won?" Andrew says. Spike moves away from the wall and stalks toward Andrew. He stops so that he's towering over the shorter man (I know. Spike towering over anyone is sort of a rare experience) and grabs Andrew around the waist.

"I'm in charge. I can get the slayers out of prison, reverse the damage that Harmony's done, and make sure your base is reestablished but in order to do that it has to look like I'm the one calling the shots."

"Why?"

"Andrew. This is Romania. Do you really think that the human population is calling the shots?" I ask, folding my arms over my chest. "They haven't since Dracula was turned."

"We're playing on vampire turf which means you need a vampire team captain." Spike adds. He looks down at Andrew and thinks, pursing his lips to one side. "We're also going to get you some new clothes. You need to blend in or you're going to be targeted as food."

"So what am I suppose to be?" Spike lets go of the...Andrew and clasps his hands behind his back.

"A friend of my Claim, of course." Andrew looks confused and Spike steps away from him and toward me. "I'm only here in this godforsaken wilderness because one of my Claimed requested that I help the slayers with this problem." Andrew looks confused as I let Spike wrap his arms around me from behind and lay a sharp cheekbone on my bicep.

"Who else have you Claimed?" I ask and turn my head to look at him.

"Remember Baltimore? I technically Claimed Amber which is another reason I want her in Paris. If I have to fall on my Master status then I'm going to have a quasi-court which includes all my Claims." He bite the sister of Tara to heal himself way back when. He gets bored easily when he gets broken. (1)

"Oh. Yeah. That's all it takes?"

"Yup."

"Then what they hell was my 'Claiming' all about?"

"Oh. That? That was me being emo. That's what that was. (2)" I point at him.

"HA! I finally got you to admit it."

"What?"

"You're emo." Spike rolls his eyes and tries to bite my finger which turns into a fist that I bop him on the head with.

"Yeah. Whatever."

"Uh guys?" We look over at the Watcher whose looking at us confused and wide-eyed.

"What?" We say at the same time.

"Do we have a plan?" I look at Andrew.

"Trust Spike. That's the plan. Trust Spike." God, and when exactly did I turn into Buffy?

* * *

**_Author After Notes_**: I'm happy with this chapter. I really am. Go figure. I got a lot done a lot more subtly than was the original plan. Cool.

Romanian Translation-

_Da. Am chemat trei ore in urma privind o deschide-s-a incheiat rezervare pentru un apartament?_-Yes. I called three hours ago concerning an open-ended reservation for a suite?

(1) Read "No One is Innocent" for more information on this and Amber if you haven't already.

(2) Read "No Promises" for more information on this if you haven't already.

(3) Yeah, I know. This is before the other two. Deal. Read "Meetings in Sewers" for the story on how these boys got together.

Love from the Dorkside;

Tropic


	7. Better than most

_**"Sometime Around Midnight"**_

**_by_**: Tropicwhale

**_Disclaimer_**: Mine? Not really. Do I wish it was? Yes. If only to have pretty boys make out in front of me and masses claim me as a god the way they do Joss and Co. It's a pipe dream. I know this.

**_Warning:_ Some limey-ness goodness in this chapter with two men. Deal with it or leave. **Also bad language.

_**Author Talk**_: Mucho going on here so sorry it's taking so long to update. We're running crazy at work trying to finish diamonds and gold and stuff before tech and school next week. And I was cast in an new original work by a local playwright. *smile* I'm more than a little tired but I want to write. Maybe this need is enough to get past my writer's block. Let's find out. I need coffee.

* * *

**Chapter Seven: **  
_Better than Most_

I walk into the suite and stand to the side to let the others in. It was crassly decorated the way most high end hotels in Eastern Europe are since I was turned. It had high ceilings with dark wood support beams and gold inlay with rich red carpets and drapes. There was a beige sectional drowned in blue, red and yellow pillows and a dark paneled entertainment unit sunk into one wall hiding a television and audio system. There was a wet bar against the wall across from the door and carpets placed quasi-tastefully around the room. Calida was pulling back curtains and investigating every nook and cranny of the place like a good body guard should. She found the doorways to a bathroom and two bedrooms. The bedrooms were both decorated in dark blues and purples while the bathroom was starkly white with a shower and a Jacuzzi-style bathtub. It was all very gypsy and not at all British. I sniff in some small disapproval as a generations-bred sense of good taste reared its ugly, suppressed head to be offended.

Of course, one could make the argument that I haven't been British in a long, long time preferring to live in America or France or Czechoslovakia…sorry…Czech Republic, still not used to that. I spend most of the 1930's and early 1940's in Poland with Drusilla which is where those Krauts got the drop on me and I ended up in a sub with Angel and the Prince of Lies. That was such a bad month for me. I spent the 1950's traveling North and South America as a result. Drusilla eventually found me dining on a Mexican family in Monclova. We traveled around the world twice in the 60's, ended up at Woodstock. Met Jimi Hendrix. Dru thought he was so wonderful that she didn't even want to taste him. Xander walks up to me and touches my arm, indicating the lingering bellhop. I growl at him and the boy backs up. "Spike, you promised you wouldn't eat the help this trip." Xander said, suppressing his amusement at the playacting.

"Did I?" My eyes never left the bellhop.

"Yes. You did." Calida said from the doorway of the smaller bedroom. "Just tip him so we can get room service this time. I want to try champagne." I look over at her.

"You're too young. Fine. Seeing as I'm outnumbered and I can't very well find another bodyguard on such short notice-"

"Or a Claim." Xander says softly as Andrew disappears into the other bedroom. I smirk at my lover. His humor has gotten so innuendo-y lately. It suits him….and makes me want to rip off his clothes and ravage him. Leave shallow bite marks up and down his flesh. Make him moan my name in need. Lick along the inside of his thigh. Breathe cold air on his skin making it goosepimple. Bite his lips and force my tongue down his throat. I clear my throat.

"Here." I thrust too many bills into the youth's hand. "Keep it all and get out before I change my mind." Xander wraps his arms around my waist and nuzzles into my shoulder.

"Thank you, Spike." The boy's eyes grow wide and he flees as I laugh evilly. I slam the door and smack a kiss on Xander's lips.

"You. Xander Harris. Are. In. Frigging. Crediable." Xander laughs as he pulls away.

"Yeah, well, you know." I laugh again and launch myself at the sofa. I kick off my boots and make myself at home.

"Put the cross over the door, will you Xan-pet?" Xander takes a cross out from his coat and tucks it over the door to create a barrier between us and any unfriendly, trespass-minded vampires. Crossing that doorway would be very uncomfortable for me but, then, I'm not most vampires and like a little burn once in a while. Besides, I'm staying here. I've a right to be here ergo…what was my point again?

"So…what are we going to do about my slayers?" Andrew had almost snuck up on us. I look up at him.

"I make a call."

"You make a call?"

"Yup."

"That's it?"

"Yeah. Better hope that the family has a long memory."

"What?"

"Oooh." Xander says. "I remember that."

"Shut up, Xander, and gimme your phone."

"Didn't you ever read Bearstein Bears and the Gimmies?" He asks.

"No. Gimme." Xander rolls his eye and tosses me the phone. As I dial I can see Andrew edge over to Xander and hear him ask about what he remembers. Xander shrugs and says it's personal as the other end of the line picks up. I speak rapidly in Romanian too quickly for either Xander or Andrew to follow and lay out my instructions to where the girls were to be delivered. I click the phone off and toss it back to Xander. Xander catches it without looking and still talking to Andrew. Andrew stops in mid-sentence and stares in shock and awe at Xander. "Andrew, go take Calida down to the bar."

"What?"

"Just go. Children shouldn't hear what I have to say to Xander."

"I'm not a-"

"I was referring to Calida. She can protect you and I can protect Xander. Get lost." Calida grabs Andrew on the way to the door.

"Come on, Watcher. You can buy me champagne."

"No." Xander and I say at the same time. Calida waves us off and shuts the door behind them. I grin at Xander. "Come here." we say at the same time again and grin.

"Spike."

"Xander." We try again. "I'm comfortable. It's a very comfortable couch. Lots of pillows."

"I'm closer to the bedroom." Xander takes a step toward the room in question and another.

"Hmm." I say. He bites his lower lip and takes another step. "Tough decision."

"I'll do that thing with my tongue that you taught me." Xander's almost to the room. Decision made. I fall off the sectional and bounce up, leaping over the back of the piece of furniture to plow into Xander, the momentum carrying us into the room and onto the bed. I press a quick and messy kiss to his lips before rolling out of his arms and onto the floor. I pull the door shut and lock it casting us into darkness. I pull off my boots and make it back to the bed, pressing against his body. "Mmm, bit hasty, aren't you?" I'm taking off my trench while licking his lips.

"Mm. Got." Nibble jaw, lick corner of mouth. "twenty minutes. That's all the time it'll take to get the slayers processed and transported here."

"How many of them?"

"Twenty."

"Twenty…Spike we don't have that much room." I nibble right below his ear.

"Ten can sleep out in the living room and I booked the other suite so the rest can bunk in there until Andrew can find better accommodations." I pull his shirt out of his pants and yank him up so I can pull off his jacket and shirt. "Now," I toss the bundle of clothes over my shoulder, my shirts quickly following Xander's. "Focus." I lean in to lick my bite mark. He runs fingers down my chest and into the front of my pants. "Oh." My head thumps down onto his chest. I _love_ it when he does that. His chest rumbles as he chuckles at me.

"Who was on the phone, Spike? Or do I have to hit redial?" He punctuates his question with a squeezing stroke. Ahha. Hmm. "Spike? Answer me or I'll stop." I _hate_ it when he does that.

"Prime Minister of Romania." His hand stops. I whimper and hump his thigh to try and get him moving again but he grabs my waist and I'm suddenly pinned. Dammit. Did he get quicker or did I get slower?

"How do you know the Prime Minister of Romania?"

"Luck"

"Huh?"

"Xander. Pet. Love. Sweetheart. You're killing me here." I look up at him and wiggle. "Metaphorically, of course." He just looks down at me blankly. "I didn't eat his grandfather waaay back when and the entire family owes me a life debt because of it. I just called it in."

"You called in a debt to help Andrew?"

"Not Andrew, a bunch of young girls that have no business in a Romanian prison."

"Spike, you softie." I shift, uncomfortable.

"Shut it."

"I think it's sexy." He nibbles my neck to renew my interest.

"Yeah?" There are a few feather light kisses to my collarbone.

"Yeah." A bite on my nipple. A lick down my side.

"Blow me, you liar." Xander looks up me with the blindness humans have in total darkness. I, of course, don't have that problem and see every detail of that cherished face. I reach out and stroke the eyebrow over his eye patch.

Without looking away from where he's guessing my face is (correctly) he peels away my pants. I start to suck in air into my dead lungs and out again. There's a tentative lick on the underside and up and over the tip. My head tips back and my eyes close. The sensations grow stronger now I don't know where or when they're coming and from the fact I know they're coming. A nibble here and hot breath there and hands are sliding denim down my thighs and past my knees. There's a bite on the underside of my knee and the sound of my trousers flying through the air. A hot kiss is pressed to my neck. "Love you." I open my eyes and wrap my arms around his neck.

"Love you too." I exhale and slide my hands down his torso to open his trousers then slide my fingers around his hips.

"Spike." he's huffing into my neck with sweet puffs of hot air as I push a finger into him. "Slick?" I moan.

"It's outside…in my duffle. I put it in there so my trench would flair with the appropriate dramatic."

"That's soo-"

"Shut it. I was making an impression."

"Yeah. Well."

"Shut up, you git." I punch him in the arm with the hand that isn't fondling his ass. We laugh and snuggle. "We could always…." He glares at me in the darkness.

"I'm going to pretend you didn't even think of suggesting of doing me dry."

"I wasn't!"

"Huh-uh."

"I wasn't….I was going to say….well, nevermind…you haven't bathed properly recently, anyway."

"What?" There was a second delay. "Oh, ew, Spike. Just-ew!"

"Wot? It's kinda…nice…on the rare occasion. Y'know?"

"No."

"Xander."

"No." I was retreating, pulling my hand out of his pants.

"Alright." He sighs.

"Spike, don't be like that."

"Like wot? I'm not being anything."

"Spike." He reaches over and turns on the bedside light. I close my eyes and turn away from the sudden glare.

"Gah." Xander presses into me.

"Spike." Hands are on my face. "Look at me, love." I exhale and look at him. The shadows that encroach on one half of his face dance over his nose and along the faint laugh lines that were starting to appear around his mouth. "You look wistful."

"Thinking about…." I couldn't say it. Couldn't say how I could imagine his face growing old and me staying the same. He'll start to resent me and then we'll break up and he'll be annoyed he has my bite mark on his neck and tell Buffy I'm still alive and then it'll be dustville or blast from the past for me. "stuff."

"You're so brooding."

"Am not."

"Fine."

"I'm not."

"Whatever you say, Angel Jr." I growl and flip him.

"Take that back."

"No." I clear my throat and lean into his face

"Take it back or else."

"Spike, you haven't scared me since I was seventeen and you hit me over the head with a microscope." I rear back, shocked.

"Now that's just not fair." I point at him. "You were unconscious. I scared Willow more than you….course, had to carry you to my lair-"

"Factory." I glare at him.

"Lair."

"That's something Andrew would say." I growl at him and he giggles.

"Your parent's basement isn't a lair; it's a cry for help. The factory was a lair. Specially after we added the meat hooks to the ceiling." I grin at the memory. "Dru wanted to hang food from the ceiling so she could look up and open her mouth to catch the drops of blood like snowflakes." Xander's giving me a look the seriously questions my sanity. "You had to be there."

"You still love her, don't you?" The question makes me pause.

"Never stopped. I mean…I love Buffy and you…but if I hadn't fallen for Dru that night in the alleyway then we'd never be together."

"You could say that about Cecily then."

"I could." I hadn't thought of the human girl that broke my heart all those years ago. Hadn't spared her a second thought after I drained her for Darla's amusement (1). "But I haven't really thought about her since I killed her."

"But Drusilla…"

"Drusilla." I confirm and flop to Xander's side and stare up at the dark ceiling. "Always had a thing for brunettes slightly out of my reach."

"Buffy's blond." I shake my head.

"Not naturally."

"I'm…not even going to contemplate why you know that."

"Saw her naked, didn't I?"

"Yeah but….Spike...._best friend_. I don't think of Buffy naked…well, not since Anya."

"Anya was a natural brunette too."

"Are you trying to piss me off?" I flinch. Just around the eyes.

"Sorry. I was just trying to make the point that all the people I've ever slept with were brunette."

"Harmony."

"Brunette."

"You're kidding." he laughs.

"I swear. The carpeting was a little…dirty blonde. Give her a few more years of life she would have been full on brunette. She dyed her hair more than I did."

"By the way, you have roots again."

"Yeah. I'll have to take care of that soon."

"I've been meaning to ask you…why platinum blond? Why not go red-headed or blue or something?"

"It makes me stand out and I look good when wearing it."

"Yeah but the Billy Idol jokes-"

"don't happen as often as you think. I can be pretty terrifying when I want to be….ya know?" Xander rolls onto his side to look at me, placing his hand on his chest and props his head up on the other one to steady himself. "Besides, I like it."

"I love you."

"Love you too." The hand on my chest slides up to cup my face.

"I'm not going to leave you because I don't want to do some of the stuff you want to do in bed or because you'll stay the same as I grow old or because you still love the women from your past. I'm not. It's who you are and I love you for it. Okay?" I look at him.

"How do you do that?" He smiles and laughs. My heart breaks a little.

"I just can read you really well. Don't worry. I don't think anyone else can figure you out past 'horny, pissed off, violent, and not so pissed off'. Well, maybe Angel but whose he going to tell? A wall? Your secret's safe."

"And what secret's that, pet?"

"That you, unlike most males on the planet, don't have an emotional life of a teaspoon but more like that of a nuclear-powered submarine."

"Why a submarine?"

"A submarine dives into murky depths the like of which isn't seen by ordinary men….and nuclear-powered because you go nuclear…a lot."

"Do not. And why is it that you go Scooby on me when you get nervous?"

"Force of habit and what do you mean 'go Scooby'? You're a Scooby too, pal. Also? You so do so too so go so nuclear a lot. That vengeance demon three weeks ago?"

"Called me a tame vampire. She had it coming."

"The Gorn demon a week before that?"

"Slimed my coat. You know how I feel about my coat. It's my second skin, part of the package, my home away from home-"

"your security blanket." Xander adds with a smirk.

"Exactly." Wait. "not. It's…you know what? Shut it." I kiss the smirk off his face then cover his mouth with my hand. "You're not allowed to speak. Ever. Again. Got it?"

"Ut I ike oo eak."

"Ever again." I repeat.

"Ove ouuu."

"Stop that. It won't work." There was a wet sensation against my palm and fingers. I roll on top of him and then realized exactly what that wet sensation was. "Ew, you child." I pull my hand away from his mouth and wipe the spit from my hand on his pants. "There are better uses of your tongue." He grabs my ass in both his hands, grinding our pelvises together. "Mm, there are-" a finger runs up and down the crease of my buttocks. "What was I saying?" Xander chuckles and arches up and kisses me. I grab his neck and deepen the kiss.

"XANDER?? SPIKE?" Andrew's voice rings out.

"Shit."

"Fuck" We scramble for our clothes, falling off the bed and over each other in the process. We get dressed and in order in record time and quiet only to burst out of the room like the guilty couple we were.

The living room is filled with suspicious girls and Andrew. I wander over to the telephone, seemingly without looking over at the Slayers that were looking at me like something of an oddity. There wasn't any of the ones that were Potentials in Sunnydale so it was both harder and easier to be in the room with them. The girls from Sunnydale would have recognized me and been suspicious because they watched me burn but these girls just saw a vampire talking to the concierge on the telephone ordering them up cots to sleep in. When the concierge asked why a vampire would let slayers stay in the room I merely replied that who better to guard me in the daytime but the enemy that would hunt me? He found that hilarious and promised to deliver the beds to the rooms himself as long as I didn't eat him. I told him I was more of a veal man.

* * *

**_Author After Tal_**k: I've got school and tech rehearsal. Be glad I got this up at all with a little smut thrown in to make you lot happy. Because that's what I live for. To make people happy. Oh, I've learned that one can live off of three meals a week about seven hours of sleep and do homework in the dark and it is possible to change your clothes at red lights. I rock. I do. Any one who says different is lying. So review and tell me I'm brilliant without making me cry. I've been crying too much these days. Too much stress...not enough sleep.

(1) No, I did not screw up. I meant Darla. Read "Bathing in Blood"


	8. Plot pretending to be filler

_**"**__**Sometime**__**Around**__**Midnight**__**"**_

_**by**_: Tropicwhale

_**Disclaimer**_: Mine only in my dreams…well, the plot's mine but if you saw it on television then I don't own it. If you haven't seen it on television and see it on television after you read this…tell me….I want my money.

_**Author Talk**_: I should be doing homework. Bah. And running followspot on "King and I". Oops, that's my standby. Gotta go. (written last month, updating now)

* * *

**Chapter Six**:  
_Here lies filler that is actually plot (shh! don't tell anyone I told you!)_

It turned out that Andrew's little problem was just a symptom. Vampires had completely taken over the region and forced anyone that opposed them into silence and death. Spike suggested that we find allies within the vampire community that would allow the region to return to something more normal or at least a region where the humans could go out at night and not be worried that they'll be eaten. Spike called it counter-propaganda. He had gone out with Cal and three other slayers and returned with enough books that would make Giles collapse in orgasmic shock. "These are books that reference the Black Masses of Cain and the Dracul clan. I'll write down what I know of the Cult of Aurelius and call Angel as well. We'll gather more information while Andrew, Cal, and Xander look for a new safehouse for you girls. We should be out of here within the week with you lot having enough information and a decent stronghold to withstand anything the vamps throw at you." A slayer with long black hair and a face paler than Spike's raises her hand. "Yeah? Justine? Right?" The girl looks startled.

"Ye-yeah." Spike grins.

"You're from London!"

"Yeah, Addington." Spike flinched. "It's alright, I kick butt. Got meself trained right by Giles and shipped out to Andrew here. Addington's not so bad. More vamps then gang activity like the news always says. Bloody pillocks. Couldn't tell a vamp attack from a knifing if it happened to them. Shows what people know. Nah, I wanted to ask…why are we taking orders from you? Ain't Xander the Lead Watcher on this?"

"I'm not a Watcher." Spike rolls his eyes at me. "I'm not! Anyway, Justine, Spike knows more about this area then I do."

"But didn't you live here with Dracula after Sunnydale?" another slayer asked. I look down.

"I had lost the woman I was in love with. She sacrificed her life to save Andrew. I didn't really want to be around the other Scoobies…or anything Slayer for a while. Dracula and Buffy fought to a standstill. He can't defeat her and she can't kill him because of his special abilities. He stays out of our way and we stay out of his. He took a liking to me and….I wouldn't say that we're friends because hey, vampire vs vampire hunter, but he allowed me to grieve the way I needed to grieve. I'm going to try and contact him but there's no guarantee he'll help….on sheer principle." Spike snorts. "He has principle, Spike, just like you."

"He's a cad and a charlatan and I wouldn't trust him within an inch of Dawn's life." I roll my eye.

"Spike, we'll need his help. He'll know it and we know it." Spike snorts derisively.

"At what price, though." he bites off the words. I shrug.

"Yeah, well, this is the grown up world….everything has a price." Spike snorts again and grabs a book. He tosses it at Justine and growls at the girls to start researching. I sigh and signal Andrew and Cal to come with me as Spike settles down with a notebook and a pen on the sofa. I pause, wishing I could be open about it and ask what's troubling Spike but signals three other girls when he looks up at me, stubborn and angry. It looks like I'll have to wait for him to calm down before I can even think about talking to him about anything. It's almost like he's jealous of my connection with Dracula? Okay, yeah. I still call the Prince of Darkness 'Master' but it's not like we ever had sex or anything….that I remember. Besides, Drac is one hundred percent hetero…..I think. Vampire. Kinda ambiguous most of the time. Okay, I can see why Spike's pissed. Crap. I might have to get kinky to get him out of this PMS session. I walk out with Andrew and the slayers.

We pick up a newspaper from the concierge and sit in the lobby for a few seconds to figure out a game plan. We could either a) pay for a few apartments across town which is how the police found and arrested the slayers the first time or b) find an abandoned house and that would be more difficult as trying to make the place livable. Andrew, the slayers and I discussed it and we decided that it would be best to have three or four 'front' apartments where the girls could stay and a back-up just in case of trouble. All of the places would have to have one resident slayer and or Watcher to call it home so that only humans would be a threat. We split up into three teams of two to search for apartments. We would find a fallback safehouse later once we got a foothold in Bucharest. I am paired not with Cal but with one of Andrew's slayers named Aliegh, a brunette that had straight hair and an oval face who knew the area fairly well. When we were out of earshot of Andrew and well into our search for an apartment she turns to me, looks me dead in the eye and says "You banging the vampire, aren't you?" Who-wha?

"Huh?"

"You. The vampire. You having sex with each other."

"Me and Spike?"

"You came out of bedroom at same time and both of you looked like….well his pants were unbuttoned and your shirt missed a few buttonholes. I don't think anyone else noticed. Why are you working with our enemy?" Ah. I start walking again, having stopped in shock.

"Spike isn't an enemy. He was a friend back in Sunnydale and Buffy's Champion. He's the reason the rest of us are alive. He stayed back so we could get out of town before it collapsed. He was the rest it collapsed. He stopped the army of the First. Trust him, if no one else."

"You love him?"

"Yeah. Can't really help it. Don't tell anyone, okay? Especially not Andrew. He can't keep a secret."

"O.K….I don't understand. Everyone knows you hate vampires." I laugh.

"Yeah, I know it seems odd. And I do. Hate vampires, that is but Spike….I guess it's because I know him? I've worked with him and lived with him and hated him and know him." I look over at her. "I really do know him. It's…I want to protect him and stay with him…be with him until I die. I only need to think about him and I'm at peace."

"Yeah, but vampires-

"He has a soul. Which is a really, really weak excuse but Spike's not like most vampires. He's different. He's still in love with Buffy and Drusilla and I'm okay with that. Buffy and Dru both refused any claim to his heart so….he has to take me." Aliegh looks at me like I'm nuts. "What?"

"That's horrible. Don't you think you deserve to have someone who loves you back….and has a pulse?" I laugh.

"The pulse thing I can live without for reasons that will never leave our bedroom….okay, it has left our bedroom but it's a personal thing."

"Does it have to do with anything with fact he doesn't need to breath?" I give her a Spike grin and waggle my eyebrows. "And now it all makes sense."

"One word. Hottub."

"That's two words."

"Not the way I say it. Not really. Spike loves me back…he's not in love with me but I'll take like, affection, and lust. He gets in trouble when he's in love anyway. Him out of trouble is a handful, him in trouble would only be worse and I think that I would love him a little less because of it."

"Does he know you feel this way?"

"No. I don't want him to."

"Why?"

"Can you say Buffy and Angel?"

"Huh?"

"Tragic melodramatic love is boring and annoying. I want him to love me…not to pity me. Him knowing exactly how I see our relationship will only complicate matters and putrefied our relationship. We've finally reached a good spot; I don't want to ruin it." She looks at me with big, too innocent eyes. Suddenly she gives me a hug. She lets go just as suddenly and starts walking again. "What was that?" I ask bemused.

"I had a sudden urge to hug you. It was like you needed a hug."

"Hey, I'll never turn down a free hug." I grin. She hugs me again and we go back to searching for the first place on our list.

Later, in the morning, I wake up to the sense I'm being watched. I'm on my side facing the bathroom and roll over to see Spike propped up with his hand on his jaw and his elbow on the pillow. His other arm pours down his side and over the tacky gold and blue comforter. He watches me with all the passion of a bored house cat. "Mornin'." he says and then his face crumples in thought and he looks up. "Well, late afternoon." He quirks his head to the side as if to dismiss this correction and returns his gaze to me. He smiles and I have to wonder what he's thinking.

"What?"

"Afternoon" he says slowly, like _I'm_ the idiot "….it's after twelve and-"

"Spike…_try_ not to be such a smart ass." His response is to raise his eyebrows at me. I sigh. "Whatever, I'm going back to sleep." I start to turn away when I can sense his smile again. I turn back quickly and his face his blank again. "Spiiiiiiiiikkkkkeee, what are you up to?" Innocent face. I do not trust Spike's innocent face. I do not trust Spike's innocent face on a train, on a plane, with a goat or on a boat, I do not trust it here or there, I do not trust it anywhere. I do not trust Spike's innocent face, Sam-I-Am. "What?" I'm full on my back now.

"Nothing. Just….absorbing the moment." I narrow my eye.

"OK. And there's a tree in Brooklyn. You never 'absorb the moment'. You plot and monologue."

"So unfair, I haven't done that since I was evil. Well," Spike somehow get closer "Maybe I want to start...absorbing the moment that is." Spike should be arrested for making things sound dirty that aren't dirty.

"Love you." There a kiss somewhere between my mouth and cheek.

"Know you do." There's a kiss shared with more lip and affection that as a guy I'm unwilling to admit to outside our bedroom.

"Will you be my wife?" I ask.

"Fucker." I laugh. "You'd be the wife."

"_You_'re the wife." I say.

"No, _you_'re the wife."

"Oh, but I'm a good wife."1 I stick my tongue out at him. He reaches over to bite it. I pull away and he advances. I retreat again, tongue still out and he slides to continue to try and bite it. My torso is half out of bed hanging in mid-air and Spike's crawled on top of me in his attempt and also to give me enough leverage to not fall out of bed. He grabs my face and then I freeze, realizing why he was being quiet and generally well-behaved. Spike, missing nothing, slows into stillness. "I don't have my eyepatch."

"Don't need it." He sits up, pulling me back to the bed. I immediately try to stand and go to the bathroom where I know was the only place where it could have come off. "Stop."

"Spike, get off of me."

"No."

"Spike, off."

"Xander…it doesn't bother me."

"Well, it bothers _me_." I stress. He scoots so that I'm braced against the headboard. "Spike." I try and push him away but he refuses to budge.

"Look." He kisses below my eye while pinning my shoulders to the wood.

"Spike."

"Just shut up." He glares at me and kisses my left cheek gently. "I love you and this?" He runs a finger gently under where my left eye should be. I jerk my head away. Fingers near eye socket equals bad. There's a kiss on my lips and back to my jaw where I can see him. He kisses my lips again but moves his hand to cup my head under my left ear. "Please don't think this..."

"This what? My eye's gone, Spike. Every waking moment I know it. Just let me…try to minimize my loss." I watch Spike's Adam's apple bob as he swallows and he kisses below the empty socket, right at the edge of the scaring.

"You do. I just wish you didn't feel the need to do it." He whispers against my skin and presses his nose to my temple. I wrap my arms around his hips, silently exchanging apologies. It's a quiet moment before I have to shift and flop Spike off of me onto his back.

"Have to pee." I say as I bolt from the bed. I pause at the entrance to the bathroom and grin at Spike's face which is set halfway between indigent and laughing. I close the door and do my business, wash my hands and replace the eye patch, sighing as I look at my reflection. Spatial inconsistency aside it's not so bad. I'm not angst-ridden about it. I just don't like anyone looking at the scarring. The eye patch gives a cool factor; the scarring gives an ick factor. Can you really blame me for an aesthetic choice?

I look down at the rest of my body. For a guy pushing thirty (in eighteen months) I wasn't so bad looking. It's not like my muscles have started to sag or anything. I do stay in good shape thanks to having to train slayers and keep Spike from chewing on the carpet which is a full time job, let me tell you. I grin at the thought of Spike as a dog. With a collar….and a muzzle when we're out in public. I go out into the bedroom and Spike already half dressed. He tosses boxers and a pair of pants. "You should have been up hours ago but you were tired so I let you sleep."

"Thanks. Any advancement in the research or apartment searching?"

"Some. We found some weaknesses in the Black Masses of Cain that are fairly recent that we can use and we've narrowed the apartments to about five locations." He said while handing me a shirt.

"Why were you naked?" I realize as he buckles his belt. He grins.

"I needed a nap. Those slayers of Andrew's wear me out." I collapse onto the bed.

"Great." He chuckles and lays down next to me, running his fingers up and down my ribs.

"You'll be fine." He assures me. I snort and get a kiss on my cheek for it. "You will. _You_ have a pulse." I can't help it. I laugh. I roll onto my side to look at him and prop my head up on my hand.

"Hey, give them time." I lay my other hand onto his side. "Soon, they'll get to know you." I kiss him on his forehead. "Then they'll hate you for you and not just because you're a vampire." He laughs too.

"Great." We laugh together for a moment. "Alright, let's go stick our heads in the vampire slayers' den." He grins. We stand and walk outs into the living room. All at once all heads in the room turn to us and I freeze and look down.

"What? Did Spike dress me like an idiot?" I check my clothes at the murmur of laughter from the girls and Andrew.

"You let a vampire dress you?" Cal asks. I shrug and grin at her for playing along.

"It's dark in there." I point back at the bedroom. "He sees in the dark. It makes sense to let him find my clothes for me in the dark…crap I wanted to wear my red shirt. Spike, go get it for me." I say flippantly. He starts to go then stops, realizing what he was about to do.

"Yooouuu." and jumps on my head and starts to mock-pounding on me.

"Ahh!" I mock yell to the laughter of the girls and Andrew. "I take it back! I take it back!" There's a knock on the door. All the laughter stops. "Is everyone here? Did anyone order room service?" There was looks of confusion. I look over at Spike. He sniffs and looks at Cal. Cal looks around.

"Defense positions." She says quietly. Research is abandoned as Andrew and his twenty slayers move to defensive positions and weapons appear seemingly out of thin air. Andrew finds himself next to me and Cal in front of us both and next to Spike. Spike licks his lips and calls out to the door.

"Who is it?"

"Emissaries of the Black Masses of Cain." A female voice echoes through the wood. I look over at my lover. He bites his lip in thought.

"Do you come in peace or as my enemy?" He straightens and his hands go behind his back like Riley used to do when he was standing at parade rest but for some reason when Spike stood that way it looked more like he was an aristocrat considering a painting that he wasn't sure was a work of art or a kindergartener's finger-paint. I guess that fits.

"We come in peace. No weapons among us."

"We? How many are you?"

"Three. All females." Spike nods to the slayer nearest to the door. She puts away her stake and opens the door to reveal three females, dressed completely in black.

Spike steps forward and I step with him, drawing even with Cal. "You're slayers." He says. I look at Spike as does everyone else in the room. "What are slayers doing being emissaries to the Cainnites?"

"We have found it is better to be a servant to the ruling powers of this land than to be against them." The one in the middle said in heavy English and stared in distain at the slayers on our side. Spike rolls his eyes.

"Of course you did."

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_**Author After Talk**_: So, I'm updating all at once but not changing the Talks because, let's face it, they let you know what I was up to so much that I couldn't update. :-), by the way there is an missing scene in "EXTRAS from Meetings in Sewers" from this chapter because twelve pages was just too long but the adorable fluff was too cute to cut. So go look for it. It's like a DVD Easter egg…all in one place

1) Ten pts to the person that knows where that bit of dialogue is ripped from and a big fat kiss from James Marsters too.

Tropic


	9. Invites

"_**Sometime Around Midnight**_"

_**by**_: Tropicwhale

_**Disclaimer**_: Mine only in my dreams…well, the plot's mine but if you saw it on television then I don't own it. If you haven't seen it on television and see it on television after you read this…tell me….I want my money.

_**Author Talk**_: I'm going to update both stories soon…I hope. I also hope that I complete and work on my homework at some point. Here's to hoping…and horses….and steak.

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**Chapter Nine**:  
_Invites_

I roll my eyes. "Of course you did." The stupid birds. "Shut the door, Rebecca. This isn't a barn." The girl that had opened the door blinks at me. She probably didn't think that I would know her name. For the record, I learned all the girls' names. I had the police station send their mug shots to the hotel and then had the concierge deliver it to me. I then had spent a good two hours memorizing names and matching the mug shots to the girls. Never say that I didn't do my homework. "Rebecca?" She jumps a little and shuts the door. The three vampire slayer-servants look between us with careful, low-lidded eyes. I grace them with a tight lipped smile. "So hard to train good servants." Their eyes dart back to me. I sneer at them, crossing my arms over my chest. "Anyway, what do you want? Or rather what do your Masters want?" I step deeper into the room with Xander following a half a step behind me. There's a part of me that wants to reach for his hand to comfort him. Anxiety is pouring off of him in bitter, rotten orange smelling waves. He doesn't like that the bad guys are using slayers any more than I do. It bleeds the lines that he and Buffy had drawn for themselves a long time ago. Humans=good and/or innocent. Evil means demons and things that don't need to breath. Slayers that are evil…well, it isn't unheard off. Buffy and Xander have issues with seeing in shades of grey. He still does even while dating me. I'm not sure about Buffy but then she was never one to change.

"Our Masters have several issues that they wish to discuss with you."

"Oh?" I ask and take a leap to land on my back onto the couch. Xander wanders over to stand at my side and fluffs the pillows so I can see the three slayers in black. I grab his hand as it pulls back and grin at him in a decidedly lecherous matter. He smiles down at me and rolls his eye. I bite my lip and wave the three Slayers of Cain over to where I could see them. They followed my command. I look around to Andrew's antsy girls. "Put down your weapons, girls…these are your sisters in the Chain. It's wrong to show violence when they come in peace." I hold my breath in the second it takes for the girls to obey my order. If any of them so much as looked at the Watchers when enemies were in the room we'd all be in trouble. I exhale back into the couch. After all three against twenty-one fighters are good odds. "So, what can I help you ladies with?" I narrow my eyes like it hadn't occurred to me before "Sit down. You are guests. Guests are allowed to sit." The three girls sit uneasily on the pillows thrown about the floor. I smile. "There now. Much better. What's the first issue on this list of yours?" I bite Xander's knuckle lightly, playfully, grinning then morph into my true face. Xander pulls away with a sigh. I pout at him and get his hand back with a much put upon sigh from him. I grin at the three slayers that are staring at me with something like bemusement. "I like a little fight in my Claimed…makes things more interesting. Come on, come on, I don't have all day." I turn to look at the wall that had windows hidden behind huge and heavy curtains. "Well, I suppose I do." I shrug. "Not the point. Xander, come sit with me?" I look up at him. He sighs and I sit up so he can move pillows to sit down. He replaces the pillows on his lap and I nestle into his lap. "Better. Easier to focus when I'm comfortable."

"Yeah, right." Xander snorts. I look up at him, slightly upset. Not part of the script. Hate it when he improvs. "Sorry, Master, I spoke out of turn but you've interrupted our guests at least three times after asking them why they are here. Perhaps, I am being too much of a distraction and should go back to the bedroom until their visit is concluded?" Nice save, Xander. He should get an Emmy for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama. I pretend to consider it.

"Nah, I'm comfy. Ladies?" I turn my eyes to our guests and raise my eyes.

"The first thing that concerns our Masters was your entrance into our lands."

"It was spectacular." I grin.

"You threatened one of our police lieutenants and every family in Bucharest that has his surname." The leader says. I grin.

"He threatened my party. Do you so allow the humans to so run roughshod over visiting Masters?" The leader looks confused. "The last time I was in Romania, the hospitality was a thing of beauty. It has been only a century. I must say I'm disappointed." The girl opens her mouth to speak and then closes it again.

"The slayer brought a sword." The slayer that sat on the right side of the leader came to the aide of her comrade.

"So?" I snort. "Was that all the fuss was about? Pathetic."

"Sire, after all…" The third spoke up.

"If you insult me by mentioning that b.s about air travel safety and September eleventh I will be force to send you back to your Masters in pieces." I snap. The slayer bows and stays silent. "Anything else?" The first took a breath.

"What are your intentions while in our lands?"

"If I remember properly, the lands from the edges of Bucharest and west lie within the confines of Aurelian control since times immemorial? Has this changed?" Again the slayer is stumped.

"No." She says, finally showing her age as far too young.

"So, if I remain in my clan's lands why should my plans be any concern of the Black Masses? If you must know…I was made aware of the inching claws of Dracul and Cain in this corner of Aurelian domain and greatly insulted. The Great Matriarch has awoken and this is what she must return to? Creeping deceit and ignoring of the old treaties? Angelus lives in America and my sire, Drusilla, travels with Aneirin herself. It falls to me to restore balance here. I like the slayers roaming free. It thins the herd of idiot fledges. These days anyone is turned and that leaves a lot of weak vampires. It's idiotic." Xander's fingers are scratching my scalp and I lean against his fingers. "I want the balanced restored and Buffy's people want to be able to police areas without fear of being arrested by the human bobbies, yeah? It's a convenient alliance. Your Masters need to realize that their presence in my lands is not welcomed nor tolerated and I will not allow it to continue unchecked."

"We-"

"Apologies are worth nothing to me; especially when it comes out of the mouth of a lackey. What else?"

"Our Masters wish to invite you to the Mass tonight." I snarl. "It would please them greatly and give you the chance to inform them of your clan's displeasure?" I exhale and turn to Xander.

"What say you, love? Fancy a party tonight or would you rather I show you the sights of Bucharest?" I turn back to our guests. "So difficult keeping a human around. . .he's seen so little of the world." Xander's hand scraps across my chest.

"Actually, I've been in Bucharest before. Dracula remember?" I growl.

"Git still owes me eleven pounds." He scraps along my right cheek and back over my ear. "So?"

"I wouldn't mind seeing the famed Black Mass, Master."

"You'd have to dress up. Leather." His arm runs down my bicep.

"What do you want, Master? It would help your objective here in Bucharest."

"You're right, of course. I hate it when you're right." He raises his eyebrow and I dig my nails into his arm to keep the smart retort that I knew was on his tongue from passing his lips and it worked. "Hmm. Tell you what…Let me think on it. Return a half an hour pass sundown and I'll give an answer. If I agree to go you will escort us to the Black Mass and, if not, well, no harm done. You can leave now." Rebecca jumps to open the door and I smile at her. "Go." I dismiss the strange slayers by looking up at Xander who smiles down at me and runs his fingers through my hair. Out of the corner of my eye I watch them left and Rebecca dramatically slamming the door behind them. I sigh and sit up from Xander's lap. I would have loved to stay there but then Andrew would have been suspicious and we couldn't allow that. Thank god that he was an oblivious idiot.

"You have every intention of taking me down there wearing leather pants, aren't you?" Xander says. I nod.

"Actually I was thinking a leather thong and a gauzy shirt." I deadpan.

"No."

"But, I want to show off your best attributes and hide the ones that need to be hidden…like that paunch you got going on." Xander reaches over and slaps my shoulder hard. "Ow. Is that any way to treat your Master?"

"Yes."

"Fucker."

"Brit." I grin at him.

"We do need to prep for tonight." I say.

"Spike, I thought you were kidding about the leather."

"I wasn't. We need to look impressive."

"Sooo, what do I wear?" Andrew asks. "As the representative of Buffy-"

"Xander can handle that. He is after all second in command to her." I cut Andrew off. "Besides, you've already cause enough trouble. The less I have to worry about you the more effective I can be in smoothing out this situation." Xander and Andrew respond at the same time.

"Spike, be nice."

"You worry about me?"

"Andrew, not the right thing to focus on this moment." Xander says.

"Oh. Sorry. Right. Spike, you have no right to speak to me that way." I snort when Andrew follows up his statement with a glance at Xander. Xander looks down at me. I am unrepentant and if he's waiting for me to be repentant then he's going to be waiting until judgment day. He knows this as well as I do and just shakes his head.

* * *

_**Author After Talk**_: Finally updating. yay.

Tropic


	10. Xander and Leather Pants

_**Sometime **__**Around **__**Midnight**_

_**By**_: Tropicwhale

**_Disclaimer_**: Some things I own, but the main characters of this story aren't among them. I make no money from this story.

_**Author Talk**_: Oh. Oh. Xander in silk and leather. This is what happens in my brain when I'm bored. Oh…and I'm a bad American with bad American geography lessons. I was researching something else and looking at the Google map of Germany and realized that Bucharest is in Hungry and _NOT_ Romania. I'm sorry to any Hungarians or Romanians or anyone who actually knew the difference. I'm soooo embarrassed. So what I'm going to do is go back through these last ten chapters and change all of the Bucharest references to Bucharest after I finish "Midnight" but before I start in on "Silk and Fire" and from here on out it's "BUCHAREST". Ironically, the two cities share very similar layouts so nothing really changes. Again, I am so sorry.

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**Chapter Ten**: Xander in Leather (cuz I'm apologetic and we all want it.)

"Xander, just hold your junk out of the way." Spike said from his position on his knees in front of me. I know what you're thinking. I'm thinking it too. Sadly, none of us are going to get what we want here. Spike was lacing me into my first ever pair of leather pants. Apparently, they were like a corset for, well, you know. It didn't breathe so of course I whined.

"I don't see why I can't wear underwear." Spike rolled his eyes.

"The line of your boxers will show through and make you look like crap."

"Chick."

"I just want you to make a good impression."

"Why? These guys are evil."

"And capable of destroying you, me, and all the slayers if they take a mind to do it. They also could be powerful allies." I was quiet for all of thirty seconds as I processed that.

"So?"

"So, hold your junk out of the way so I can lace you into these things." I do as I'm told while Spike focuses on corseting my crotch. "Alright, pull your hand out." I do and he tights the strings and ties it off. Spike stands and looks at me, up and down. "I do love you." He says, sincerely, then cocks his head to the side. "Can I take you out like this all the time? Half-naked and wearing leather? People would stop asking questions about why I stay with you."

"No." Spike pouts and sort of jerks.

"Come on. Please?" He gives me his very best "Dawn".

"No!" I wrap my arms around his waist and pull him to the bed.

"Oi! You git!"

"Love you." I nuzzle into his neck. "Love you. Love you. Love you."

"Stop it. We're on a timeline here." I grab him through his own leather pants. "Um, Xan…"

"Love you." I kiss his mouth.

"Cut it out, XANDER!" I freeze. He sounds really pissed. I pull back to see his Game Face. "You can't pull that sort of shit here. Get off of me and let's finish getting you dressed." I feel like I should remind him that he started this but something told me I shouldn't push it. It might have been the fangs.

"Okay, Spike." I sit up and he stands in a bit of a huff.

"Get your shirt on. I left your boots outside." Spike left, slamming the door and I dug out a green dress shirt from my duffle. It was wrinkly but there was a steamer in the closet so I was able to get it presentable. I really, really wanted to leave my shirt untucked to hide the bulge my groin had become.

I'm shy! Okay?

I looked in the mirror and sighed. I miss my awesome Hawaiian shirts and my cargo shorts. Remember those? Remember the incredible laid back style of Classic Xander? I do. I miss that guy. The guy staring at me from the mirror was starting to get wrinkles on his forehead and at the corners of his eye sockets. This guy was missing an eye, had a scar on his lip, and was wearing leather. The guy in the mirror, though it didn't show, was dating a male vampire named Spike. Over all, classic Xander would have had a coronary and died in horrible, spastastic seizures if he ever met this neo-cool, sorta gay Xander. It made me a little sad to be me. Arms wrap around my torso and a body formed to my back. "What's amatter?" Spike asked, laying a sharp cheek on my shoulder, though the mirror showed me alone in the room.

"Classic Xander would have hated me." I said.

"Classic Xander was a bloody pillock." I sigh. I get why Spike was resentful but I was still that Xander. A little older, yes, and, I hope, a little wiser but still Xander. One guy who loves a vampire that resents him just a little.

"No. He wasn't. He just didn't like you."

"He was a pillock to Anya too. You didn't notice it but you disregarded a large part of who she was."

"Great. Make me feel worse." Spike laughs and rubs my arms.

"Love, it's not the end of the world. Not today anyway. You've changed and grown. I envy you a little."

"Why?"

"I can't grow old. I can't evolve. I will always be exactly who I am in this moment. You and Buffy and Dawn and Willow and Giles; you get to change and adapt. I wouldn't mind going back to being human if it meant growing old and growing up with you." Strange vampire logic.

"Why would you….humans die, Spike."

"I know. Death isn't so bad. Coming back is worse. Being a ghost. Unable to affect anything…having to concentrate to do stuff that normally would be second nature?" Spike shook his head against my back. "I'd rather spend eternity in 'ell then do that again."

"Are you going to drop the Cockney when we were at the Mass?"

"Wot? NO! It needs to get thicker." God, save the Queen. "Anyway…" Invisible fingers undid the buttons of the green shirt in the mirror.

"Spike, you said that we don't have the time for that."

"Calm down, I'm just changing your shirt."

"I don't have another shirt for this sort of crap with me."

"Which is why I bought you a shirt before we left Paris."

"What? Why?"

"Because I know you and I know that you suck at clothing."

"So do you, leather boy." I say even as I let him take the shirt off me.

"I still have better fashion sense then you." He kisses my spine chastely. Jerk.

"The hair."

"A statement against people who are pillocks."....didn't he just say that I was a pillock? Or that I used to be....hmmm.

"The trench-"

"Don't even!" I turn to look at my boyfriend's ass as he's bent over to dig through his duffle. He looks over his shoulder. I cock my head to the side, daydreaming. "Oi!" He stood. "Eye up here, big boy." he said in a fairly decent Mae West impression. Internal snort. He probably met her. I look up and grin. I look at the shirt. It's red with black patches on the shoulders and panels on the front.

"What's with all the red?"

"We need to match." I raise an eyebrow at him and give him a good hard look. He had the good sense to look embarrassed. "It'll be a statement that we're together and you're off the menu for anyone who isn't invited to take a bite. Of course, no one is getting that invite." I cross my arms. "Just put on the bloody shirt." he gripes. I take it and he looks away.

"Possessive much? What's amatter, Spike?" Spike sits on the bed, breathing, while I shrug the silk shirt onto my shoulders. I miss a button and have to unbutton the whole thing and rebutton it only to miss a different button. Spike stands and buttons the shirt for me, leaving three buttons undone at the top of the shirt. "What? Wanna show of my neck cleavage."

"Yeah." Spike says so softly I'm not sure he even knows he spoke. I wrap my arms around his waist and pull our lower halves together. "Gotta ask you something."

"Need to bite me?" He looks at me. "You have I-need-to-drink-from-you-but-am-afraid-to-ask face." He blinks. "So?" He opens his mouth to say something and then shuts it, looking confused and places his hands on my biceps. Note to self: in order to shut Spike up just offer to feed him. "Spike? You in there, buddy?" I wave a hand in front of his face. "Spike? William? Willy? Billy Idol? Billy-bob Thorton? Spike Lee? William? William Defoe? William Blake? Spike? Robert William Francis Pratt? Heellloooooo?" Spike licked his lips. Okay, good. I didn't send him into a waking coma with the offer of neck cleavage. This is of the good. "Spike?" I lean in and lick his ear. "William?" I saw in a breathy voice that usually has the effect of my flying through the air and ending up naked on the nearest flat surface. I'm still trying to figure out how he strips me in mid-tackle. Nothing. "Bite me, big boy." I whisper in my own Mae West impersonation. He latched onto my neck and suddenly I'm crushed in a steel grip. Ow and OW!

I force myself to relax and just as it's starting to feel good, he stops. He licks the wound closed and then he's halfway out the door. "Okay, let's go."

"Bitch."

"That's my line." he grins as he starts to close the door. "Don't forget to put on your boots, yea'?"

*S/X*

Cal, Spike, and I were led to a limo and then asked to wear blindfolds once the car started moving. I shift and wiggle until Spike huffs in annoyance and slaps my thigh. I suddenly sense the two slayers that were sitting across from us and the two vampires on the two side seats of the limo heighten their interest in us. I can practically hear Spike's eyebrow rise and his growl of dismissive warning. Cal snickers on my other side. I smirked and leaned into Spike. Spike's hand gropes my thigh where it lands.

Soon enough, the limo stops and we're helped out. Out into the chill city night air and down a narrow flight of stairs. As the stairway widens it gets damp, water dripping in slimy droplets onto my shoulders and head. I sneeze. There's a distinct lack of "God bless you" so I just say "Excuse me."

The dampness disappears between one step and the next and our blindfolds are removed. The sudden torchlight has us blinking for a few moments and then the view has us blinking for a few more. "Welcome to the Black Mass of Bucharest, the grandest in the world." Our guides say simultaneous. Guh, that's a little aggravating. Spike snorts in annoyance. I look over at him and we grin at each other. Spike looks away to survey the room.

"I can admit that it's quite impressive but no more or less than other courts I've been guest to." I look out from our perch on a trellised balcony sunken halfway into one wall. A spiral stair drops down into the stone room. It is impressive. The rectangular room's as large as a mansion, maybe two. The high stone ceiling, at least twenty five feet above our heads, is held up by huge carved wooden beams blackened by centuries of torch smoke. The recessed balcony that's the only entrance that I can see and is set in the exact center of the room from either side and from the floor to the ceiling. On the right side of the room is a line of bare stone pillars and on the left is a matching series of pillars covered with red velvet curtains. I look at Spike and at our guides and then take a step forward onto the first step of the staircase. Down below, chained to the pillars is a line of naked men and women. Men on the left, women on the right. Even from this distance I can tell that they all had been chewed on by multiple vampires. It makes me really, really angry. One of our guides steps next to me and smirks.

"The one hundred victims of Cain. Fifty men entrapped by the softness of women and fifty women entrapped by the hardness of men." I blinked at him.

"Could you be more literal?" I ask, with more than a little anger and a lot of snark. Spike snorts in amusement as the guide glares at me then him.

"e's from California." He explains and grins. No apologies, no excuses. God, I love him…especially when he's annoying someone else and I get to watch. Spike's eyes drop down and back up again, sizing up the other vampire. "See that, Xan?" He points out to the far end of the room. "It's the bleedin' wall, and the arc above it is the story of vampires." I blink and look out into the room. There's a raised dais at the opposite end of room. The stair to it starts narrow and ended up wide, like an upside down pyramid, with twin rivers of I'm going to guess blood running away from the platform. On top of the platform were two chairs with large leathery looking wings springing from their backs. Behind the chairs was a carved archway and within the archway was a waterfall of blood. I feel a little sick to my stomach at the sight. "Wot's the carvings on the pillars holding it up?" Spike asks our guide.

"The seven columns of Hell." I look over at him.

"Seven? I thought…" I look at Spike. "I thought there were nine circles of hell? Where the other two?" I look back at our guide. He gives me a nasty grin. "Nevermind, I don't want to know." The guide gives me a calculating and lewd look. Gross. I look him up and down and snort in contempt. I could take him. I look at Spike. "Shouldn't we go down?" Spike grins at me and indicates our guide. I turn to face him too. We must have been a pretty disturbing picture because the vamp gulps, sniffs, and turns abruptly to lead us down the steps. Instead he falls over the edge. The other vampire snorts.

"Idiot. Knew he wouldn't last long. Shall we?" He carefully led the way down. Spike and I go next and last Cal with the three Cainite slayers staying behind at the entrance, acting like bouncers. I look over the edge. The first vampire was so much raw meat on the stone floor. Other vampires seem to have materialized out of thin air and are lapping at the blood.

"I thought vampires could land from heights on their feet?" Spike shrugs, looking over the edge as well.

"It's a learned skill. He still smelt of the grave." Our guide nodded.

"He was a favorite Claimed of my sire. She took a liking to him and turned him just two weeks ago. It's good you witnessed his death, now she can't punish me for it." I chuckle.

"Sibling rivalry?" I ask. Our guide glances back at me.

"Forgive him. He used to be chummy with Buffy the Vampire Slayer." I glance at Spike.

"I still am."

"You stole one of the Slayer's favorites from under her nose? Impressive for one so young."

"Thank you." Spike's smug. The vampire looks at me.

"I think I remember hearing of you. If you are Xander Harris, your exploits in Africa were impressive."

"Thank you. You like the word impressive." I noticed.

"It's a good word. It is complimentary and means nothing." Spike explains. "You'll hear it a lot around vamp-court." The other vampire nods as we reach the bottom of the stairwell.

"You'll be forgiven for your ignorance then. We can't expect one who was our enemy to know our world." He says. Spike grabs my hand and smiles at me one of his real smiles. Huh. Did I miss something? Did I do something right?

"Wait, does that mean you just gave me an empty compliment?" The Cainite smirks. Crap. That's sneaky. Wait. Vampires. Duh.

We pass the vampires that are licking up the blood of the shattered fledge. One looks up as we pass and growls, its face not quite ridge-y like Spike's true face but somehow distorted, like there's granite pushing out from beneath the parchment skin, stretching it, and the whites of its eyes are blood-red instead of yellow.

"Don't look it in the eye, Xander." Spike says. "It's a revenant." Too late. I freeze to the spot. The vampire slinks toward me on all fours, dragging a smear of blood from the corpse behind it. It opens its mouth too wide to be natural and there is a line of fangs as big and dainty as a child's pinky finger. Our host steps in front of me, breaking the eye contact and hisses at the revenant. The revenant hisses back and launches itself at our guide within a blink of an eye. Just as quickly it's flying through the air, and the other revenants look up, following its path with their eyes, some licking their chops at the possibility of another free meal. Spike is suddenly in my vision. "Xander? Are you alright?" I gulp back the bile and nod. "Revenants are the result of too many sires. They have all the abilities a vampire can have and all the reasoning skills of a rabid wolf. Don't either of you look into their eyes, got it?" He glances at Cal but focuses on me.

"Got it." Cal states. I feel sick.

"Why leave them alive then?" I choke out at our guide.

"They are Cainites. We do not kill our own." I look at Spike. He shrugs.

"Legend goes that in order to be a true Cainite you drink from one of the walls of blood which occur naturally where Cain or Lilith slept. You also renew what you take with some of your own blood. Blood taken and given. Childer are offered the chance to drink from the walls once they reach maturity and finish their training. About half end up becoming revenants."

"They are usually the Claimed that served more than one Master vampire in human life. We try not to let them be turned but you'd be surprised how many humans lie to receive eternal life." Our guide adds.

"Maturity? Training?" Spike grins.

"Yea'."

"Technically, your master has not quite reached maturity and his training does not ring completed." Spike sighs through his nose, still blocking my view of the revenant vamps that have gone back to their feast, their brother apparently surviving the beat-down it received. It took me a moment to realize he was talking about Spike.

"Huh?" I had a headache on top of the nausea. The guide smiles.

"A vampire, if it was made as a Childe and not a minion, stays with its Sire until it has spent two hundred years as a vampire upon which time it reaches maturity and finishes its training. It is then its own master." I did the math in my head.

"By that reckoning Spike's still a fledge." Spike nods.

"Not to mention I had two sires, Drusilla who made me and Angelus who trained me."

"The madness of Drusilla, Favored Daughter of Angelus, Scourge of Europe, Terror of Mongolia is well known. That you cared for her at such a young age instead of killing her and taking your Mastery is impressive." Spike looked at the guide.

"I loved her. She offered me more than anyone had ever offered before or since." The guide smiled.

"I am Patrick, by the way." He said.

"Thought you sounded a bit on the Irish side."

"I was a merchant in life….I traveled to Bucharest and haven't left since….as such my…ah, my lilt has slowly disintegrated if not my command of the English language."

"I think your English is fine." I say. Spike snorts.

"You are American. You wouldn't know good English if it walked up to you starkers and slapped you in the face." I just glare at him. He's lucky we're in enemy territory. Patrick laughs at us.

"You are by far the two most amusing guests we've had in a long time. Ah, here is my family." Other vampires, not revenants-thank….someone-appeared. One or two came from the stairway but most just appeared. Walking into the torchlight like they were freaking ghosts and a few floated down from the rafters like they were Mary-Fucking-Poppinses. What the heck? Spike chuckles and bangs his shoulder against my bicep.

"Close yur mouth. Ya look like a country bumpkin." I raise a finger at him, keeping my eye trained on the incoming vamps.

"Technically, I'm a suburban bumpkin." Spike rolls his eyes and I play the boytoy by grabbing his arm and kissing his cheek. "Seriously, how do they do that?" Spike just shrugs.

"Welcome, my Family!" A bombing voice echoes out from the empty platform. "And guests." The same voice says quieter from right behind me not at all causing me to jump almost into Spike's arms. Spike and I turn together. A skeletal creature stands before us, more bone structure than anything else. A chill ran through me. "I am Dominus, son of Cain and Lillith, father of all true vampires. Welcome, William the Bloody, Spike, son of Drusilla." Spike blinked and bowed.

"Thanks for the invite." He rose. "This is my Claimed-"

"Alexander LaVelle Harris and his bodyguard, the Vampire Slayer Maria Belicia Calida Valencia Ramona Guerrero. Yes, I know all who enter my realm….and you were less than subtle." The old vampire drew his mouth up in a grin. It didn't look real on the preternatural face. I tighten my grip on Spike's arm, ready to run. That smile turns on me. Spike shrugs and shoves his hands into the pockets of his trench.

"Never did like the idea of subtle. Too…._subtle_." Dominus' eyes gleam red. "Besides," Spike sniffs and rocks back on his heels. "I remember a certain treaty from about four hundred years old that states that lands including Bucharest and east belong to the Cult of Aurelius."

"The city has expanded since then. This Mass laid west of the city limits and was the start of our dominion. It is now within city limits…as was the airport you landed at." I watch Spike's face fall and his mouth form the letter 'o'." I cuddle into Spike. Dominus laughs. "I will forgive you for your transgression! As one of the youngest Masters of our cousins of the Thrist I applaud your desire to uphold our treaties." Dominus laughs again. "Come, come. We will sacrifice to my father's blood to commemorate your arrival here. You were here at the turn of this century last if I'm not mistake?"

"Uh, yeah."

"It's a shame that Angelus was cursed by the Romany. He was truly an artist when it came to villiany." Spike looks down.

"Yeah, he was."

"Where is he now?"

"L.A. Saving the world."

"Disgusting." A vampire off to the side says. Dominus looks at him and the vamp skitters away. Dominus turns his red eyes on me and I was struck by how much he looked like the Ubervamps except there was clearly a keen intelligence shining through those horrible eyes. I blink and Dominus was in my personal space. Crap. Claws were touching my face and the bite mark on my neck.

"Fascinating. You have excellent taste in Claims, William. He's absolutely devoted to you." I saw Cal approach out of the corner of my eye. I shake my head at her and she relaxes into an alert but neutral stance. "Come." My arm's gripped in a steel clasp. Ow. I was lead to the dais. I see two vampires grab a man and a woman from their columns, dragging them toward us. I look at Spike but his eyes have that dead quality to them that means he's trying not to care too much about what is about to happen. I reach for him but he pulls away and minutely shakes his head. My arm drops to my side and I feel a little lost. Cal steps up to me and I put a hand on her sword arm. I shake my head and tilt it toward the woman. Her eyes were listless and her entire body was littered with bite marks, her long dark hair matted and greasy. Something flickers in Cal's eyes. I watch another fresh set of victims being attached to the walls. They fight and scream as multiple vampires start feeding on them. It's terrifying compared to the two that lean passively over the small pond of blood from which the dais rose from on its hellish pillars.

The two vampires that held the victims produce twin wicked daggers and held them high over their heads. The entire room stilled. Calida and I might as well as be the only living things in the room. Dominus lets go of me and mounted the steps of dais. He turns and faces his audience. "From blood we come…." The male vampire grabs his victims head and bared his neck. "From blood we are made." The female vampire raised the neck of the poor woman. "To the blood we give tribute." The daggers flash and there was moment where the blood was a thin line on the necks of the man and woman. The woman sighs and there was a look of relief right before her blood bursts out of her neck and sprays into the pool a second before the man's neck burst open. Dominus' eyes glow in the half light while the vampires that sliced the necks of the sacrifices throw away the bodies to kneel, drinking from the pool. Patrick gestures behind us and we turn to see all the vampires in the room drinking from the twin streams that run from the pool. He bows and folds himself to lap at the running blood.

When every vampire other than Spike was lapping at the blood Dominus turns and steps into the waterfall and opens his mouth. The other vampires raise their heads in ones and twos, whispers of 'Dominus' slowly starting to echo off the stone walls. Soon the whisper became a frenzied shout. The father of vampires turns "HAIL TO THE BLOOD THAT MADE US!"

"HAIL TO THE BLOOD THAT MADE US!"

"HAIL TO THE FATHER AND MOTHER OF VAMPIRES!"

"HAIL TO THE FATHER AND MOTHER!"

"HAIL CAIN AND LILLITH"

"HAIL CAIN AND LILLITH"

"THEY WHO DEFIED THE ALL-MIGHTY AND BROUGHT TO THIS WORLD AND HIS PEOPLE DEATH UN-YEILDING"

"HAIL"

"THEY, THAT BROUGHT ME INTO THIS WORLD WITH A THRIST FOR THE BLOOD OF MY BROTHER"

"HAIL"

"HAIL TO MY MOTHER, WHOSE DEFIANCE BLED MY FATHER AND MARRIED ME"

"HAIL"

"HAIL SHE WHO HONED MY BLOOD THIRST AND BROUGHT INTO BEING THE RACE OF VAMPIRES!"

"HAIL LILLITH"

"HAIL SHE WHO IS GODDESS AND MOTHER. HAIL LILLITH!"

"HAIL, LILLITH! HAIL LILLITH, MOTHER AND GODDESS! HAIL DOMINUS, KING AND FATHER! HAIL THE RACE OF VAMPYRE!"

"HAIL, THE RACE OF VAMPYRE!" Dominus echoes.

"HAIL THEY THAT BRING EVERLASTING LIFE IN DEATH."

"HAIL VAMPYRE!" Dominus looks like he is in thrall of the blood and the chant. "BRINGERS OF LIFE IN DEATH!"

"HAIL THE BLOOD THAT IS THE LIFE!"

"HAIL THE LIFE-GIVING BLOOD! HAIL BLOOD OF LIFE! WE COMMIT OURSELVES TO YOU."

"WE COMMIT!"

"LET US FEAST ON THE BLOOD OF MY FATHER, LET US BRING THE DEATH IN LIFE TO ALL WHOM IS WORTHY! LET US BE THE DARKNESS in this world." the last three words were whispered but care across the echoing room just the same. Moans of ecstasy sound from all around us and there is the sound of splashing. I turn and see vampires all rolling on the floor in pleasure, some falling into and splashing into the rivers. I turn back to see Dominus has tilt his head up and is drinking from the blood waterfall. Cal has a look of consternation on her face. Spike's angular face turns into me.

"Don't turn around." I turn and get a faceful of the entire roomful of vampire fucking each other. "Told you." Cal's face is full of disgust. Spike reaches over and slings his arms over our shoulders, turning us back to the dais. "Better if you don't look, either of you."

"How can-" Cal starts to ask but Spike shushes her.

"Good bodyguards are seen and not heard." Cal looks at him. "Shush." She looks like she wants to say 'but…' but Spike beats her to it. "Just shush. I know." I look back up at Dominus and my eye widens in surprise. He's young again. His claws become long elegant fingers, his head has grow thick, curly, black hair and his face young and fresh. Cal retreats against Spike's side in surprise. I was used to seeing Dracula pulling the same bit at his castle.

"Impressive, isn't it?" Dominus looks Cal in the eyes. She has trouble blinking.

"Impressive." Spike agrees and places Cal behind the part of us. "You'll have to excuse Cal. She is young and all this is quite overwhelming." Whoa, wrong thing to say. Dominus tries to get a better look at our slayer and I can feel the vampires' attention turn toward her rather than the hedonistic acts that were dominating the room. "She was raised by a very religious family." Cal steps forward and pulls a large golden cross from under her shirt and gives a nasty smile to Dominus who hisses at the religious icon. "I find having a bodyguard who believes in God gives me an advantage on anyone that would mean me or mine harm." Spike's grin was nasty and shows slightly sharpen teeth just this side of vamping out. He slings an arm over Cal's shoulder. "Now, shall we talk business? There is this annoying matter of-"

"William the Bloody?" A distinctively British voice says suddenly. Spike blinks and turns as do Cal, Dominus and me.

"Wot?" A dark-haired vamp steps forward. I recognize him as the vampire that sliced open the man's neck not a few minutes before.

"I thought that was you! How've you been?" Spike squints his eyes and tilts his head, his arm still around Calida. His head rears back in surprise after a moment of inspection.

"No way!" My boyfriend grins. "Xan, commere! This is the vamp that first called me 'Spike'. It stuck, by the way, thanks ever so much for the advice about changing my name."

"No problem!" The vampire approaches us and grabs Spike's face kissing both cheeks. Spike lets go of Cal to grab his shoulders. "That massacre of those hoity-toity socialites was brilliant!" Spike shrugs.

"I didn't do it on my own."

"Please! Everyone knows Darla prefers to watch bloodshed than join in. Bit of a snob that one."

"She was."

"Was?"

"Slayer. Sunnydale. Well, she was brought back but….that didn't really last."

"Darla's gone?"

"Yeah."

"Angelus? Drusilla?"

"Uh, Dru's running around with Anerin and Angelus is now 'Angel'."

"Of course, I heard about the soul. Heard the same about you." The vampire narrows his eyes. "In fact, last I heard you were fighting for the white hats in L.A….souled Champion of good and everything." Spike stares at the floor. In a flash the other vampire was dust, a stake in Spike's hand. Spike makes eye contact with Dominus.

"No one claims I'm one of the good guys and lives."

* * *

_**Author After Talk**_: HA! Finally, finals are over and thus an update. Also, anyone catch the name of the next installment? I snuck it in...cuz I'm a ninja like that.

Love from the Dorkside;

Tropic


	11. Dramatics

_**Sometime **__**Around **__**Midnight**_

_**By**_: Tropicwhale

_**Disclaimer**_: Some things I own, but the main characters of this story aren't among them. I make no money from this story.

_**Author Talk**_: "Annie". My life is owned by theater and college. 22 weeks. 22 weeks until I'm no longer a professional student. I like that idea. It's really funny though. I spent high school and a good chunk of college wishing I had a life and friends and was good at something and then I start writing this series and all of a sudden a life sort of happens. It's like I proved I didn't need it. I had this series and you Peanuts and then BANG I got a life. I'd like to thank you all for that. You gave me more than any of you will ever know. I will continue to write this story and the others. I've let it fall by the wayside but it is not forgotten. I need to learn disciple in my life and that means finishing what I start and not abandoning that which helps me be successful. In my case that's you lot. Everything I've accomplished in the last two years is because of you guys.

* * *

**Chapter Eleven**:  
_Dramatics_

"Of course." Dominus looks genuinely surprises at my action. I sneer.

"There is a problem that I do need to discuss with you. Perhaps in private?" I press my advantage. The Cainites are all watching.

"There is nothing for me to hide from my Family, William." Xander approaches me and wraps his arms around my bicep, pressing into me. It relaxes me to have him there. I can't lose with him there.

"Very well." My smile's nasty. "You need to lean on the humans to back off the slayers." There was a murmur of disapproval. Dominus sneers.

"Why would I do that?"

"Oh please. You are the father of vampires. Surely you realize how important it is for us to have natural predators. With this new popularity….well, let's just say when I was made vampirism was more of an exclusive club. In Paris alone….I've come across grave-stinking minions trying to make themselves their own Bellas like in that American series." Just the thought gags me and it is obvious that others in the room find it just as distasteful. "Think of it, Dominus. Surely even the Cainites have suffered from the effects of this increase in weaklings being turned?" There was another murmur. The female that sliced the sacrifice's throat came over to Patrick. "More revenants? More fledges doing stupid things like trying to mess with guests' Claims and ending up dead?" I look over at Patrick who smiles and bows his head in thanks. "Slayers are necessary to keep our ranks strong and to keep vampires from outnumbering our food sources. I don't have to tell you how well human farms always work out for us. We need slayers to keep the population in check."

"Not to mention to help young upstart fledges cement their reputations." A cultured voice says from behind us. I turn to see the so-called Prince of Darkness, himself, Count Dracula. I sneer.

"You still owe me my eleven pounds….plus interest."

"Yes I heard. Two slayers and one…how is it said these days? Epic fail."

"Buffy was a fluke but she brought Xander into my life and he's proven invaluable….as you well know." Drac sneers at me.

"Manservant."

"Master." Xander answers automatically. Shit. Murmurs spread like wildfire throughout the room. Hellhellhell. Dracula smiles at me. I sneer.

"Nice trick." I turn to Dominus. "Dracula had mind-fucked Xander to get to Buffy when he dropped into Sunnydale awhile back. Of course that was several years after Angelus, my sire, gave Xander to me. Obviously, once hypnotized always hypnotized and some of us had to try and kill Buffy without gypsy tricks up our sleeves."

"Yet you both failed." Xan says then shrugs. "Had to point out the obvious before you boys start whipping things out like measuring tape." He leans into me. "I owe my allegiance to you both for very different reasons. The Count was kind enough to hide me away from Buffy when I lost my would-have-been wife when Sunnydale collapsed and Spike for taking me in after that. They're both my masters….I'm lucky." I curl an arm around his waist when he looks down those few inches into my eyes.

"Which is wrong." Patrick's sire says suddenly. "No human is allowed two masters." Xander looks at her.

"Neither of my masters are Cainite…nor do I want to become vampire….No offense but I've seen the less than pleasant aftereffects of favored humans becoming vampires. It never works out. Count Dracula has never tasted my blood nor I his. I'm truly Spike's Claimed as proven by the bitemark on my neck." Dracula does that dramatic sweeping step thing that he's so fond of over to Xander and wretches his neck to the side. He hisses, agitated.

"You've no claim to him anyway." I say, pulling Xan away from the Dracul jealously. I'm so going to fuck his brains out tonight. "Angel had previous claim on Buffy Summers the Vampire Slayer as you must have noted when you bite over his mark on her neck." Dracula glares at me. "She claimed Xander and the rest of the Scoobies as her court, very much like a vampire. By our law any that serve her serve Angel and Angel gifted Xander the week I first arrived in Sunnydale….no matter if I didn't claim him immediately I still had dibs. So, stuff it, you poncey git." Dracula spread his arms wide.

"Fine then. Prove it."

"Prove it?" Xander squeaks. I look over at him. He's thinking sex in front of everyone. The pervert. He catches my glance and silently begs me that it's not that. I grin in a way that suggests that I'd gladly fuck him in public. Xander is starting to look really nervous.

"Actually, I feed from him right before we came. Didn't want to come into your territory on an empty stomach." I wink at Patrick's sire who sneers at me. I don't think she likes me. Might have been because I implied her favorite Childe was a weak loser.

"Perhaps, master, another show is possible?" She says and smiles. "After all, they are very muscular…and the Aurelian didn't join in Mass. He must be….tense." Bitch. I snuggle into Xander.

"I didn't join because I was raised right. You don't just join in such things without the strictest of invites." Dominus is nodding.

"Yes, Phyllis. He is right…and I'm sure that with a Claim like that…physical intercourse goes hand in hand with bloodletting." Actually, no. For Xan and I they are completely separate…but whatever. "But a display would be amusing…mm." Xander leans into me. Dracula takes a step toward Dominus. "My house, my rules, Vladimir." Dracula stops in his tracks. Xander bumps his nose into my ear. I try to shake him off, watching Dominus think. He does it again. I glare at him. He widens his eye at me and smiles hopefully. I furrow my brow, trying to figure out what he's up to. He pecks me on the cheek and I get it. I grab the back of his neck and pull him down into a kiss that was full of teeth and tongue…a lot of tongue. He grabs the lapels of my trench and I grab his ass. Our groins grind together and there's silence. I shove my tongue deep into his mouth and kiss him until oxygen becomes an issue for him. I let him go and he gasps for breath. I look around to see the entire room staring at us.

"Sorry, can't always help myself with this one." I wipe some drool off my chin. "He's sort of…" I glance at Xander "like crack cocaine(1)." Xander frowns. He wraps his arms around my neck.

"Just crack cocaine?" Xander whines. I roll my eyes dramatically.

"China White Heroine." Xander grins. "Better?"

"Much." He rubs his groin against my thigh.

"Behave Xan."

"Mmm."

"Xander." I warn. He nuzzles my neck.

"Master?"

"Yes?" Dracula and I say at the same time. We glare at each other. Eleven pounds. He lost that bet fair and…well, ok…not fair but at least square. Xander sighs.

"I was talking to Spike. Shoulda been more specific. Anyway, if the Prince of Darkness is here, do we really need Dominus' help? Dracula is waaay more active with the human population than the Black Masses of Cain." What's Harris' game? "Of course, this issue is bigger than all of you….Spike can tell you what happens when the human governments get involved with the preternatural stuff. It isn't pretty and that's exactly what's coming this way if the slayers are eliminated from the game. Your-our way of life is at risk." Ha! I get it.

"Right. If the Cainites, Dracul and Aurelius band together we can keep Twilight and the human governments from getting too uppity. If it is the time for vampires to step into the light….figuratively….we should do it on our terms…not theirs." Xander leans into me and grabs hold of my hand. When did this get political?

"Whose side are you on, Spike?" Phyllis asks. "Because to my ears it sounds like the slayers' side." I roll my eyes.

"I'm not on anyone's side. I'm on the side that leaves me free to do my own thing. Here's the facts, _Phyllis_; one, vampires and slayers have been exposed by Harmony on reality television, two, a new player going by the name of 'Twilight' has his fingers in a lot of human and supernatural politics with the ultimate goal of wiping out all magic...using Morrigan le Fay's Grimmoire, three, the Matriarch of my line, Aneirin, daughter of Morrigan, has risen indicating a change in eras, she also wishes to reclaim her mother's book to rebuild the world in her image. I know that it seems counterproductive to ask that you put pressure on the humans to lay off our enemies but…"

"If the magical world is wiped out…if our enemies are only starting with the slayers…we are still on the brink of destruction…" Dracula speaks. "However, your witch-friend increased the slayer population….that's shifting the balance as well." I blink at him. "If a few slayers are killed-"

"More are called." Xander said. "That much hasn't changed. For each slayer that dies another is called. We're still working with a finite number….except this one is in the hundreds. Also, I know you lot wouldn't care but innocent girls who aren't slayers are being killed…the same as it was with suspected vampires and werewolves. Slayers are the new things that go bump in the night for the mundane world." Dominus pouts. He actually pouts.

"That's our employment. The Black Masses will help you, young William. We are the ones to be feared and revered not those little waifs!" Huh. That's what lights a fire under his ass? He likes to be the scariest thing in the room? Obviously, he's never seen Angel first thing at night before he gets excessive amounts of gel in his hair. Eek!

Well, whatever works. Go Xander. I look over at Dracula. He's looking like he's swallowed a lemon. I can't tell if it's the fact he's left out or the fact that we used his popularity to get the Cainites' help or the fact that Xander is nibbling on my ear.

"Of course if the Black Masses are going to assist the young Aurelian fledge the least I" Dracula lays a long fingered hand on his chest, the dramatic git. 'Young Aurelian fledge' his lily white ass! "can do is offer a place for the plans to be drawn up. As impressive as the Black Mass of Bucharest is and as cozy as that hotel suite is…my castle, my home, is a happy medium of the two. Allow me to play host."

"And the chance to stick your nose in where it wasn't asked to be." I say a mit snottily. Xander lays his hand on my arm. "Wot?" I ask him angrily. I'm a little jealous and that makes me defensive. Shut it.

"Count Dracula is trying to be civil, Spike, and it is his problem as well. Perhaps, this is a good idea?" Xander looks like a kicked puppy. Dracula opens his arms wide.

"And of course, Xander" the name sounds weird on Dracula's lips; he's not used to saying it. "is just as much Dracul as he is Aurelius and Buffy's. He is Family." Xander and I both look at him. There's a smile on his lips. "One couldn't make a better candidate for negotiations such as these." Make? Creeper.

"Excellent idea! Some of my court will leave for your castle tonight!" Dracula smiles and bows.

"I remember where it is, Mas-Count." Xander says. "Spike and I will come tomorrow night, after we pick up our clothes and inform Watcher Andrew Wells and his charges where we'll be." Dracula bows again. Dominus smiles.

"Excellent! Much to do!" The Cainites all disappear and Dominus, himself, fades like the Cheshire Cat. "I'm sure you'll be able to find your own way out?" he says then disappears complete, leaving only a fang filled grin in mid-air that pops out of existence.

"Yeah, that's not creepy at all." Xander says. I elbow him.

"They're still here, you idiot. Let's go." I turn and walk out down the long stone room. I can see Xander looking at the victims chained to the walls. The two new ones have passed out from the blood loss and pain.

"There is nothing you can do for them, manservant." Dracula says quietly. "Forget them for now." I resist the urge to growl at him. We reach and climb the staircase and are escorted out, blindfolded, by the Cainite slayers. We are driven back to our hotel and our blindfolds removed before being let out onto the street. Dracula was still with us as the limo drives away.

"Hope you don't think we'd invite you up." I tell him. "Unless you're going to give me my eleven pounds." Dracula sneers.

"Hardly, William. Manservant, perhaps you and your bodyguard could give your new master and I a moment alone?" Xander blinks and looks at me. I nod. Dracula's no match for me. Not one on one, anyways.

"Sure." He and Cal go into the lobby.

"Walk with me, Spike." I shrug, shoving my hands into my pockets. Dracula starts walking down the street and I keep step. "What is your game, Spike?" I raise my eyebrows. "Oh, please, don't play dumb. You never were very good at it."

"I've gotten better. Had to."

"Mm, why did you kill Andrew?" I didn't-oh, the vampire, Andrew. The one I dusted down in the Mass.

"He was threatening our cover. Like the Masses would work with a souled vampire." Dracula shrugs.

"They would have killed you three on the spot."

"I trust you can keep it quiet until I'm back in Paris?" I ask.

"Of course, if you drop the eleven pounds bit." I shrug. I won't. "Do you remember when we first met?"

"Yeah, London 1880. I was a vampire for all of a month and you were running that scam on the Harkers."

"The Stoker book hadn't been written yet. Wouldn't be written for another ten years. Such was the time when my fame only reached to the preternatural set. I heard the funniest thing last decade, that you were Jack the Ripper." I snort.

"I wasn't even in London. We were in Poland…or Russia? Somewhere cold. I remember bitching about it and reading about the White Chapel murders in some weird lang-it was Poland, close to the Russian border. I remember now. Drusilla and Darla wanted to show me Moscow."

"Not Angelus?"

"He was busy ripping some poor girl apart to read the newspapers. I would think you would be the infamous Ripper. You always did like the theatrical."

"It was the creature made by Dr. Frankenstein." I blink.

"That was real?" Dracula snorts.

"She 'dreamt' it…what do you think."

"The monster still lives?"

"How should I know? His little spread as Jack the Ripper was the last I heard of him. He never did finish the spree."

"Twenty-nine. One of his notes to the police said he was going to kill twenty-nine."

"Of course, he was trying to complete what his creator denied him."

"A mate." Dracula nods. "Bloody hell. That explains a lot." The Count laughs. "World we live in, eh? God, could use a fag." Dracula produces a cigarette from somewhere. "Ta, mate." I grab it and he lights it for me. It was strangely intimate. "Trying to quit. Wouldn't want Xan to contract secondhand lung cancer from me and all that."

"Sometimes we need our vices." Dracula smiles with closed lips. "Speaking of Xander…what is your game with him?" I shrug and continue walking, taking a drag off the cigarette.

"No game. Like him. Gonna keep him. Take care of him." Dracula laughs softly.

"Oh you Victorians." He turns suddenly, his eyes gleam red as I suck on the cigarette, making the tip flare orange. He backs me into a shadowed wall, bracing his hand on the bricks behind my right ear. I blow smoke into his face. "Always so transparent." He kisses me gently on the lips. "It's adorable how you always need someone to take care of, Spike. It really is. But watch whose property you take."

"Xander isn't your property, you little skank. I was telling the truth when I said that Angelus gave him to me."

"Ha! Did he have a soul?"

"Yeah, he was trying to get me to leave town before Buffy could stake me. Didn't work. He was always, your word- transparent…Irish and all. Doesn't negate the ownership though. You bite over a mark by him….you're the thief here not me. He's mine." Dracula's face is dead for a moment and then snarls, turns away to punch a lamppost. "Yeah, that's mature. How old are you? Almost six hundred?" Dracula whirls around and growls at me. Just as suddenly, the rage is gone, seething under that quaffed persona. He leans against the dented lamppost.

"My offer still stands, William. And with the manservant by your side you are doubly welcomed in my court."

"You planned on turning him?" Dracula offers a half smile and a shrug.

"He was…amusing. I had thought that I would use him to get to Buffy but…" another shrug.

"He's too loyal." The Count nods. "Yeah. Noticed that." I have to smile. I love my boy.

"Of course, he's a bit of a prize himself." I grin, taking a drag off the cigarette. "He taught me to ride a motorcycle…in exchange of living in my home for awhile."

"Boy's not a mooch. His family is…but he isn't."

"Speaking of Xander's family…do they know about you?" I shake my head. "Really?"

"Never got around to telling them. They don't even know about the whole involvement with the slayer thing. Sunnydale natives. They don't even notice the supernatural when it was the other side of the wedding party. He's afraid of how they'd react if he told them he's involved with another male." I take another drag.

"Does Angel know?" I snort, nodding.

"Hell, the whole Family knows." Dracula raises an eyebrow. "I wasn't kidding about Aneirin rising from the grave. Saw her myself…the gold bitch. She kidnapped Xander."

"And she still lives?"

"I didn't find him. Dru brought him back. Went through a rough patch for a bit. Just got over it." I look at the ground and sigh through my nose. "She gave him my memories, Vlad. As Matriarch she could and she did…to torture me and him." I swallow, the nicotine not going down right. I spit to the side and drop the cigarette, crushing it under a boot heel. "Couldn't stop her. She not exactly the sanest of vamps…." I look up. "She's out to take over the world…and I think she can do it. Last time she tried; Morrigan Le Fay used the magic of the Grimmoire to stop her…it caused an extinction level event for all magical beings…."

"Dominus…"

"Dominus isn't the father of all vampires. If he is…he'd have had to been buried deep to escape that spell…it knocks out all the strongest of magicks. Little weaklings can get by it but the big boys are flatten like bugs on a windshield."

"You want to stop her? She's Matriarch to you, Spike."

"Matriarch to me was Darla. Patriarch is Angel. I think Dru's helping us too. I think. She…"

"Drusilla's a mad thing, Spike."

"She's not all that crazy." Dracula looks at me like I was being defensive. "She's not. She took a liking to Xander, saved him from being food and worse. She…she's evil but she's not stupid…and she's psychic….that has to mean something, Drac. When the crazy evil psychics start helping the good guys you know something wrong is about to go down." Dracula approaches me. "What?"

"It is near dawn. I must go to my rest and you to yours. You have given me much to think about in my daylight death, Spike. You and Xander both. We'll speak more on it tomorrow evening. I trust you can find your way back?" Just when I think he's going to kiss me again, he turns into a bloody vampire bat and flies away.

"YOU KNOW THAT CRAP DOESN'T IMPRESS ME!" I yell into the darkness and head back into the hotel. "Creepy dramatic fucker."

* * *

_**Author After Notes**_: (1) Legit, I couldn't not resist this joke. John Mayer is a bonafide d-bag. My boys do that joke right. I'm working hard on so many things. This is procrastination in it's finest form.

Love from the Dorkside;

Tropic


	12. Enter Freely

_**Sometime **__**Around **__**Midnight**_

**By**: Tropicwhale

**Disclaimer**: Some things I own, but the main characters of this story aren't among them. I make no money from this story.

**WARNING**: LANGUAGE. Also, **SMUT** CHAPTER. It was accidental. Those darn boys and their horniness. ehem.

**Author Talk**: AH! CRUNCH TIME! FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK. I say that will feeling. Also, things to look for…Spike being sneaky and Xander apparently like to steal lines from sci-fi novels by James Goss that he and the author like to read….in which Ianto Jones becomes, apparently, one hot bird (I defy you to look it up on Amazon). And Xander's obvious dorkiness. You'll know it when you read it.

* * *

Chapter Twelve_  
Enter Freely and Of Your Own Will _

In the fifteen minutes of trying to convince Andrew that he couldn't come with us because it was too dangerous and that Dracula's real castle was not as friendly as the tourist trap one; fifteen minutes, I might add that Spike was off and running with my Master, the Prince of Darkness, and not here to back me up….I was getting frustrated. It didn't help that once Spike returned he went straight into our bedroom and shut the door. The bastard. Whatever, it gave me an out. With a final "Andrew! NO!" I dart into the bedroom after my vampire and slam the door behind me. "I hate you." Spike chuckles.

"It's not me you hate but dealing with Andrew." Spike was already packing. I give him a good look. "What?" Uh, oh okay. When Spike starts pronouncing his 'h's and 't's something is wrong. I approach him like one would approach a time paradox or male models; carefully and from behind. I dig my thumbs into the juncture of his neck and shoulders. Spike's head drops forward for a second then bobs back up. "Oh, that feels good."

"Everything will work out." I could practically hear him roll his eyes at me. "Former Scooby. I know my stuff." Another eye roll. "It will!" I shake him by the shoulders.

"Ah!" He bends forward to escape my mild brand of torture and I follow him so that I am bent over his back with our arms around his waist. "Not now Xander."

"Mm, not about sex sometimes, Spike."

"Always about sex."

"If you give me some crap line about sex being life-"

"I'm not….just feeling my age." I straighten and pull him up.

"You're not old enough to start 'feeling your age'." I tease. Spike partly turns in my arms and looks up at me with those blue eyes of his.

"You're starting to think like an immortal, love." I grin.

"Know thy enemy." I quip. He snuggles his head under my chin and sighs. "Finished packing?"

"Yeah. 'll call downstairs later to tell them that Andrew and the girls get top service. I'll pay."

"Generous."

"Nope. Distraction tactic." I laugh.

"You're so smart."

"Well, I _am_ going to college."

"My learned lover." We snort like a couple of twelve year olds. He turns and wraps his arms around me. "Tired?" He nods. Snuggly Spike equals tired Spike. I've no problem taking advantage of this fact. "Too tired to help me out of these pants?" Leather pants. Who invented these torture devices? And more importantly, whose idea was it to put me in them? The author's? Shoot the bitch. Hands slip past the waistband to palm my dick….okay, author gets to live. "I thought you were tired?" The other hand sneaks down the back of my trousers to grab my ass.

"Helping."

"Are not. You're coping a feel."

"I can multitask."

"Jerk. So the woman. EEP! SPIKE!" His fingers just did something decidedly NOT PG, family-friendly. His response was to chuckle evilly. Then I was flying through the air. At least I landed on something soft like the hotel bed which is a change from say a wall or a headstone or the ground…open grave, railings/stairs, stone coffin things, other really hard and annoyingly pain-giving objects…come to think about it, yeah! bed!

Spike was at the end of the bed removing my shoes and I, being the philanthropist that I am, decided to let him. He's had a tough week. Lips were at my neck and hands were unlacing my crotch. Within seconds I'm naked from the waist down and suddenly my shirt is gone too. Spike hovers over me, fully clothed, nipping at my lips, my neck, my chest. I cushion my head on my crossed forearms to better watch Spike tongue the indent of my solar plexus and breath cold air over my nipples. He scrapes blunt teeth down over my ribs and rubs a cheek bone over my stomach, all still dressed and hovering over me on his hands and knees. It's so fucking hot.

He looks up at me with those sincere blue eyes of his. "We'll figure out a way to save those hundred victims." I nod. I understand. He didn't like it any more than I did. I take my right hand and reach out to him. He leans the top of his head into the offered touch and moves so I brush down his cheek and ear to his jaw. He's such a kitty-cat sometimes. I scratch his chin and he nips at the inside of my wrist.

By now, I'm nearly completely erect and he's still clothed which is mildly frustrating. I know he needs to be in complete control while we're in Bucharest but I'm still hard and Spike's doing weird, soft teasing stuff. I whine a little in my throat and spread my legs open just a little. He chuckles and leans down to come face to crotch with my erection and breathes cold air over it. "FUCK!" I jump out of my skin. "You fuck-" He licks the head of my penis with a little cat lick. "FUCK"

"Fuck, you fuck-fuck?" Spike asks with that horrible smirk on his face. "Really?" I try to swat him with my knee. Not effective. That goes into the book. Knee-swatting equals not effective.

"Dammit!" I throw my head back, trying hard not to demand what I want. For whatever reason, in this city at this moment, demanding anything of Spike would be a fast track to getting him to shut down on me. Vamp-city, vamp-terms. "Dammit!" I can't do the boytoy begging thing. I won't. I'm still a Scooby. Spike wraps his hand around my penis and runs it up and down once and then dips his tongue to graze the opening at the tip.

Remember what I just said about begging? Do me a favor. Forget I ever mentioned it. "PLEASE! please, please, ohguh!please! Spike!" His mouth was cool and wet and oh god. "Spike!Spike"

"Shh, I got you." I groan. This was going to be a long night...day...fuck, who cares? HOLY MOJITOS!

*S/X*

We really didn't sleep today but spent the entire time awake and…ehem….connecting emotionally. I swear. Spike's insistent and inventive, and thankfully lost his clothes at some point around noon. I'm probably going to be sore for weeks after this. At some point in the late afternoon, I was lying horizontal across the bed, my butt at the very edge, my legs up in the air with my thighs pressing into my chest. Spike was standing over me; thrusting and pressing me to the mattress. His teeth were at my bitemark, not drinking, just giving me the mother of all hickies and Andrew walks in. Two words

Mood. Killer.

"OHmygoSH! SorrYbYE!" He shut the door. Spike pulls back enough to look me in the eye. He exhales through his nose.

"Crap." He says. "You wanna keep going?" I breath in, fully intending to tell him 'no' but my muscles in my lower back cramp and tighten at the same moment and Spike groans. His head drops and he gives the smallest thrust into me. I tighten as a result and he thrusts a bit more strongly. I tighten on purpose, bearing down on the muscle inside of me. He's breathing heavily all of the sudden and grabs my hips. "Fuck." His lips smash into mine and I'm being pounded into. My heels are thrown wide and my entire body just tightens and jumps. A dry orgasm rocks my body as Spike makes this small, whining sound into my neck, cold air bursting over the bite mark there. "Fuckfuck, fuck. oh. Xander." Strangely, my mind jumps back several years when he was tied to an ugly, orange barkolounger and making fun of me and Anya. The real thing…as in Spike saying my name as he cums and not making fun of me….so much better.

We lay there, Spike collapsed on top of me, his body cooling from not being under the blankets with me. I'm staring up at the ceiling. "We should clean up." His voice is husky and worn.

"Yep."

"I don't want to."

"Yep."

"Kinda wanna stay here…getting grossly stuck together."

"Forever?"

"For at least a lifetime." Spike nuzzles into me. "I love you. Whatever happens….I do love you."

"Stop being so morbid. I love you, too." He snuggles into me.

"We're not going to be able to do this at Drac's castle."

"Have day-long marathon sex?"

"Do the relationship thing. There…"

"I'm a sex toy and a companion. A servant to your whims. I know. I still love you."

"Ok. I'm probably going to discount you a lot…but I'm still going to be possessive. It can't be about me defending a lover but someone trying to mess with something that's mine."

"I know."

"I still love you though."

"Am I your favorite new toy?" He laughs but doesn't answer. "Hey, answer me…am I your favorite toy, Spike?" He laughs again.

"My favorite toy doesn't speak…..possible has to get blown up every once in awhile…or has to change batteries….get software upgrades…."

"Hey! Don't make me swat you with my knee again. Am I your favorite new toy?"

"What do I get out of it if I say yes?"

"A coupon for a free blow job."

"Mm….nope. Need more than that."

"A coupon…for a sexual act of your choosing…within reason"

"Define 'within reason'."

"Nothing illegal…or life-threatening."

"hmm."

"Spike?"

"Thinking. Does this coupon have an expiration date?"

"No…am I your favorite toy? Am I? Am I? Am I?"

"Sure…why not."

"Jerk."

"Yep. Love you."

"Love you too. You're going to have to help me up….my bones hurt."

"Mm"

"You've no right to sound that smug."

"Mgm." I slug his arm lightly. He mock-growls. "You shouldn't have this much energy."

"I'm running on endorphins."

"Swell."

"We should get up and calm down Andrew." Spike makes a low volume sound reminiscent of a cat being boiled. "Come on. Get up." I poke him. He makes another sound. "No procrastinating…that's my job."

"You don't have the patent on it."

"I know….I procrastinated too long." Spike snorts and gets up, making us both groan. "Changed my mind, get back down here."

"Cm'on."

"Aghrgh." He drags me into the bathroom and we shower quickly; only mildly distracted with the other being naked and wet.

Eventually we drag ourselves into (Spike's version of) 'appropriate' clothes and gather up our gear and walk out to meet the littlest Watcher.

Andrew had sent the slayers except for Calida into the other hotel suite so he could attempt to corner us, I guess. Spike slips an arm around my waist and I throw my arm over his shoulder. "How long?"

"About two years." Spike says evenly.

"Three." I correct. Spike turns his head to give me his _You're an idiot, why do I love you_? look. "Two and three-quarters."

"Two and a half…not even. God, don't make it sound longer than it is." I grin at him and he pulls a face.

"O-M-G, you two are in love!" Andrew's 'I'm going to be upset and stern with you two' act was starting to dissolve. "Who else knows?" Spike scratches his head.

"Not Buffy. And you don't tell her."

"Well, I haven't told her you're alive-"

"Unalive." Spike and I both say.

"Unalive for a few years now."

"Thank you for that."

"So she doesn't know you're gay, Xander?"

"No…and I'm only gay with Spike."

"What? Is there a 'proximity to Spike, gotta be gay now' switch in your head or something?" I laugh as the thought clearly crosses Andrew's face that says 'I hope there is cuz I got it'

"Probably." Spike glares at me. "It's true…we're only gay together." He snorts, amused.

"Giles and Faith know…Oz…you wouldn't know him."

"The guitarist for Dingoes Ate My Baby. Willow's old boyfriend. I did go to school at the same time as you guys…I just was younger."

"You are younger." Spike says. "Who else? Red and Kennedy."

"Mm, Angel….and Drusilla"

"God….we should go back to L.A just to have sex in his bed again." I roll my eyes at him. "Hey, you can't last forever…man's gotta have a hobby."

"What did I say about being morbid?" Calida gags.

"They're actually more disgusting back in Paris." Cal pops in her two cents. "Always running off to have sex or running around our safe house naked." I watch as Andrew's eyes glaze over.

"Andrew?" Spike asks, and Andrew holds up a finger. He blinks.

"Okay. I'm good." I glance at Spike who raises his eyebrow.

"We don't run around naked that often." he says and I nod.

"Just when our slayers steal our clothes." Spike grins.

"Oh Patricia. So, Cal, you're staying here and bootcamping these slayers and Andrew into shape."

"Really?" Cal looks a little too happy about that.

"It would be the height of stupid for the Cainites to attack Xander on Drac's turf. He'll be safe."

"So you two are going in…alone?" Andrew was unconvinced.

"Yep!" I shake my head at Spike's Spike-ness. He points at Andrew. "Be-" he points at Cal "-have" He uses two fingers to point at both of them. "Yourselves."

"Tch" Cal snorts. "Don't get involved in any orgies….you don't know who the strange vampires have eaten." Spike laughs.

"It doesn't work like that. But your concern is touching."

"My concern isn't for you, vampire."

"Your concern is touching." Spike repeats. I watch as both Calida and Andrew are confused by it.

"_Spike_ means that he's touched by your concern for me, Cal." I explain. Calida hides her reaction of realization and Andrew's mouth becomes a small 'o'. "Spike…I can't say aloud what I'm thinking so be a dear and read my mind." Spike gasps.

"ZAN-DERRRR, we just had a daylong marathon of sex…are you ever satiated? I'm not a machine you know." Spike turns away and holds his hands over his chest and looking at me over his shoulder, pretending he's a naked woman covering her breasts or something. To me it just a throwback to William. I resist the urge to cuddle him. Barely.

"What can I say? You're irresistible….William." Spike blinks at me, confused. Before he could figure out what I meant by that and get angry there was a knock on the door. Saved by the Bell. Iiiit's AL-RIGHT! Cuz I'm Saved by the. It's Alright! Cuz I'm Saved by the Bell!

I'll stop singing now.

"Our ride is here." He says.

"Want me to carry both bags?"

"Nah. Make them do it….we're guests. Just direct them to the bags." I nod. Calida is the one that opens the door. Gypsies. Eep.

"Our Master, the Count of the Carpathians sends his regards, manservant. Welcomes you to return to home." Spike growls. "And Aurielian Spike. Welcome to Bucharest and we welcome you to our master's home in Transylvania." The head gypsy-man says. "We go now. Bags?"

"Here." I point to the bags at my feet. One of the four men moved forward and swooped up the bags in one go.

"Come." The lead guy says and we follow him out the door. Spike pauses at the threshold and turns back to look at Calida and Andrew, his hand on the door knob.

"Be good." he says solemnly and shuts the door. I want to scoot up to him and tease him but hey, bad guys are right there so I'm gonna tell you guys what I can't tell him. Way to be over dramatic.

((*S/X*))

So, traveling by car to the castle it's three hours. However, Master…Dracula sent us the helicopter. We were driven to a private airport on the outskirts of the city and then flown up to the castle. Hour and a half. Dracula was waiting for us on the helicopter pad that was jutting out from the roof of the castle. When did he have that installed? It wasn't there the last time I came to visit. Even Dracula adapts to the changing centuries, I guess. Nothing, not even vampires, could resist the passing of time.

Last time I was here, we had to land in a field about two miles away and take horses to the actual castle. The helicopter takes off again and I can hear the local wolf pack howling in hunt echoing off the mountains. Dracula greets first Spike, clasping him on both biceps and doing that funky double kiss thing on both cheeks and then turns to me. The gypsies take our possessions on into the castle. I'm probably going to have to speak to Vadoma about getting some of it back.

I'm sure most Gypsy tribes are completely blameless, or at the very least, centuries-innocent when it comes to the whole Gypsy are thieves myths but for whatever reason the gypsy clan that serves Dracula love to steal my stuff. Vadoma is the Grandmother. She 'works' in the kitchen of the castle to feed those that eat food. For all that I've seen of the clan I don't know what they call themselves or how they structure their families. The men are silent and the women absent, save for Vadoma and her two sisters, both who are as gray haired as old women come. There seems to be about two hundred of the men who cycle themselves through shifts working for the vampire over the course of two months, coming and going on a varying timetable. Their food, although amazingly delicious, never has garlic or mint in it. There are a few demons also running around doing the Count's bidding but I don't really talk to them. And, of course, the three sisters and really, guh, who'd want to talk with them? Really, when I come for a visit the only person I talk to is Dracula.

"Manservant." Dracula greets me clasping me with both hands on my biceps. "So good of you to return to me."

"I'm visiting…with Spike." I have to keep that straight otherwise there would be problems in front of the Cainites. Dracula is playing his 'jubilant uncle' card. You know, the one that is the unmarried older brother of your dad and comes to visit in the middle of the summer and brings trinkets of faraway lands….like Sacramento.

When Dracula acts like this he reminds me of my Uncle Rory but more sober.

"Ah, yes. Of course. How forgetful I am in my old years." Spike snorts at that and I agree with the sentiment. The day that Dracula forgets anything is the day I turn into a literal butt monkey. You don't get to be that old without a ruthlessly good memory. "Come, come. Our other guests have arrived." Dracula leads us into the castle. As we reach the door to that leads into a turret and thus stairs, Dracula takes a long fast step and reaches the door before us. He gives us a tight-lipped smile and says carefully "Enter freely, and of your own will…and leave some of the happiness you bring." Spike snorts

"Quoting Bram Stoker? How low the mighty have sunk."

"Stoker quoted me, William, and I mean it. Enter freely and of your own will…and remember that in this house I still reign on the old ways." Spike sneers. I look at him and Dracula. I place my arm on Spike's forearm when he goes to step forward.

"What does that mean? Exactly? Reign on the old ways?" Spike sniffs.

"You did not teach your supposed Claim of our ways? How…new-aged of you, William."

"It's _Spike_ now, as you well know seeing as Andrew and you are the ones that gave me that handle. And Xander only gets to know on a need to know basis as he's still a vampire hunter." Dracula rears his head back with all the lazy deadliness of a snake.

"You kill your own kind, _Spike_." He made Spike's name sound like an insult. I opted to remain quiet. Pissing contests with the vampires for humans is a spectator sport only. You'd need to know when to run. "I'd have thought that you wouldn't mind what they know of our ways."

"There are some traditions with which I hold. Vampire hunters do not need to know how our society works….only how to kill us and keep us at bay." Dracula offers a small, wane smile. "Knowing more of us then they should…it'd tip the balance. I'm not one for unfair fights."

"No. You never were. Even when you were a fledge still smelling of graveyard dirt you hunted like a Master."

"Thank you. Angelus and Drusilla and Darla were strict teachers."

"No. They believed in the hunting revelry. It is what made them such a force of evil. You, Spike, were different. Are different. There are those inside, older than I am now, that never had the sense of fairness about the hunt that you do. The talent of seeking prey stronger than you and winning. It is not a learned trait, Spike. You were born to the night with it. Some would say it makes you weak."

"I'm not weak."

"No." Dracula says softly. I got the impression that there were a zillion things that Dracula wanted to say to Spike but it would take a century of nights to say them all and neither vampire was that patient. "Xander will stay out of the meetings." I perk up.

"What? But-"

"Xander." Spike says "I will act as your proxy as I am the Master here." He looks at me and a shadow falls across his face. "We want the same thing." I nod.

"I get it."

"I'll show Spike to the Great Hall. Xander, your rooms are the same."

"Is Spike staying with me?" I ask. Dracula does that small wane smile again. "I mean…he's my Master….do we get to stay together?" I know I sound like young, feeble prey. "Spike?"

"Of course." Spike looks back at Dracula and gives a nasty grin. "After all, I've grown used to having a warm bed."

"I will show you there myself…before dawn. Come, we waste moonlight." With that he leads us into the castle.

* * *

Author After Talk: Oh, Dracula. He's fun to write. And scary too.

Tropic


	13. All the Vampire Games

_**Sometime Around Midnight**_

_**by**_ Tropicwhale

_**disclaimer**_: Not mine.

_**WARNINGS!**_ ah, boy. What's going on in this chapter? Vampire mind games and a little….um….M/M/F LIME? and some M/M Lime. I blame Dracula. This so not what I planned. What the hell? Ummm. Spike's sailor mouth? Violence.

_**Author Talk**_: Whew! So, I'm determined. I will finish this series. six books after this one. I've decided something about this and the next 'book'. I've realized that the harder I try to stick to my outline, the more difficult it is to write. So I'm letting up on my leash a little and going to see where this goes. Alright? Alright. Besides, outlines are more like guidelines anyways…a back up plan if you will. Right. Okay. Onto the story. Ps: thanks for all the reviews. I know this story isn't as fast paced as the others but I'm working on it. Experimental. Yeah!

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**Chapter 13**: All the Vampire games

I. Am. Bored!

Really. Who knew vampires could be should long winded sots! Help! I'm about to be dusted by boredom! Someone let some blood or dismember something or disembowel a servant. ANYTHING! I'd rather attend a month-long research party with the Scoobies and the Bat Pack where Angel and Buffy spend the entire time making not-quite goo-goo eyes at each other and Kennedy keeps sneaking off to cheat on Willow and Giles and Faith make out to old David Bowie tracks than be here!

Where the hell is Xander when you need him? Do you think they'd make blood-filled donuts? I'll take a dozen with a large cup of blood with Wheetabix in it. And Xander should serve it to me wearing nothing but those leather pants and his eye-patch. Yum. Oh, and add an order of hot wings and one of those onion blossom things. God, the stuff of wet dreams that.

It's two am in the morning and we've been talking since an hour and a half after dusk. So far we've covered names….and a recap of Aneirin rising and this whole situation with vampires being out and about on television and in the global eye. We've also gone over the whole Twilight thing. And now Dominus and the great Bat of Transylvania have been posturing. I've sat back and tried to keep my eye lids from twitching in boredom. One of the Count Bat's servants hands out goblets of blood. I taste mine carefully. It was a young girl's spiced with her own fear and cinnamon. I only hope that she died quickly. I shift the goblet away carefully watching the floor show of Dominus and Dracula taking not so subtle barbs at the other's bloodlines. I count to ten slowly and roll my eyes to the ceiling. WWAD?

What Would Angelus Do? Nope. Can't eviscerate them. Be fun though. What Would Buffy Do? Nope. Can't stake them. Need them un-living to put the bite down on the human governments. What Would Xander Do? Give me head to keep from eviscerating or staking them? No, wait. That's what _I'd_ have him do. What Would Illyria or Drusilla Do? Talk to the plants probably. Hmm. Running out of people. Isn't that always the problem? What Would Angel Do? Brood. Nope. Not an option. What Would Lorne Do? Probably start a sing-along. Gah, no. Dracula is already gay enough that if he starts singing he'll be worse than Lestat. And the world just doesn't need a vampire gayer than Lestat. Oz would probably just be quiet. What Would Patricia Do? Probably think 'hmm What Would Spike Do' and I so am not sharing Xander's mouth with her. Love her, won't share with her. What Would Giles Do? Read a library book. Willow? Nah…wait. What would Willow Do? Hmm.

"Are we boring you, Spike?" One of the female Cainites asks me suddenly, I recognize her as the sire of Patrick and the stupid fledge that fell off the balcony of the Mass. I blink and look around. Everyone is staring at me.

"Absolutely." I say. It throws them. Honesty usually throws old, dead things.

"Oh?" Dominus asks. He still looks young.

"I'm thinking about my Claimed with various wet food treats….it's passing the time that you waste having pissing contests between the two bloodlines."

"What would you have us do, Spike?" This comes from Dracula.

"I'd rather know what we can do about the humans and Twilight. He's been gaining speed with the demons as well. Also? I need your combined resources to find the Grimmoire of Morgana Le Fay."

"And what makes you think we don't know where the book is?" the female Cainite asks. So going to stake that bitch.

"Because you lot are evil. The Grimmoire is a source of unimaginable power. You'd have used it already. Aneirin-"

"Yes, Aneirin. I heard that she wanted you as her king, Spike. How do we know you don't want the book to give to her? As a wedding present?" I grin nastily.

"Why would I want to settle down with the gold bitch of England? I enjoy being the biggest bad in Paris, surrounded by my court and with access to the Court of Miracles."

"The King of Truands allows you to claim Mastery of his city?" Dominus is curious.

"He hasn't come after me and I've been there for over two years. Our paths don't really cross. He keeps to the mundane half of Paris where I police the supernatural set. It's mutually beneficial." I shrug. "I still need to find the book. Call me weak but I've grown fond of this world. If rumor and legend holds true than that book has a spell in that takes out all magic."

"You are weak enough for it to pass over. Not even two hundred." this bitch is starting to annoy me.

"I'm not willing to take that risk nor am I about to trust another creature to use its power for stupid reasons. I've learnt my lessons well when Angelus and Dru tried to suck the world into hell."

"So this is about self-preservation?" Dracula asks. "You'd have us believe you surround yourself with slayers and the forces of good to, what? protect yourself?"

"I'm not the only one in the room that uses slayers as bodyguards." I look at Dominus.

"Yes, but my slayers are brainwashed. I would never allow our enemies so close without some sort of measure so my childer will not be harmed."

"Your paternal instincts are touching." I say snidely. "I've found that winning loyalties among the slayers was not that difficult. The group that I keep in Paris were so hungry for a guiding hand it just touched my undead heart. They'd die for me now."

"And Xander? What of my manservant?"

"As you well know _my_ Claimed has a direct line to all that Buffy does. She's gone and gotten herself a nice set up. It was in Scotland but now is somewhere in Tibet." There was a shift around the room. "Didn't know that?" I smirk.

"So this is what?"

"Increasing my chances of seeing next century. If you want to continue to play power games in this back corner of the world, go ahead. Help me get what I want and I'll leave you to it."

"What do we get in return?" Dominus asks. I smile.

"Buffy and Dracula fought to a standstill only because he has gypsy tricks up his sleeve. Would you fair as well?" I wonder aloud. "Would the Masses of Cain stand up to a direct onslaught of the slayers?"

"Are you threatening us?" another, male, Cainite asks. Dominus raises his finger and the vampire resumes his silence and seat.

"He is wondering why we fear the slayers enough to allow the human government to use us as a tourist attraction." Dominus says. "If we are truly the Scourge of God then we've no reason to fear the Shadowmen's puppets." Not exactly but let him think what he will.

"The Immortal feels the same way you do. He ousted Andrew Well's squad from the Seven Hilled City. Which is why they are in your territory." I explain. "Why be so obvious about a few dozen girls when there are bigger fish to fry? I've seen examples of them fighting. Buffy makes sure none of them know how to fight one on one."

"They've turned into pack hunters?" Dracula asks.

"Yeah. There's no challenge to kill a slayer anymore. You just take out the ones that aren't paying attention. They rely on their teammates a little too much and poof! Dead slayer. It's no fun."

"So, what do you suggest we do?"

"One, find Morgana's Grimmoire. Two? Send a representative to Rome to talk to the Immortal. If your bloodlines and his influence can reverse some of the damage that stupid bint, Harmony, wrought by killing that rogue slayer than Twilight and Aneirin will find it harder to take out the slayers because of all that positive publicity. It'll slow down their world domination plans long enough that me and mine can find a way of destroying the book."

"And what then? Have people fear us? Our kind would be wiped from existence by the mundane mob." Dracula says. I shake my head and lean forward.

"No. It gives us the chance to take our fights underground again. In public the whole slayer vs vampire thing will be a thing of long ago legend. Myths. We're civilized in this new day of technology and light. But, behind closed doors and in the shadows we go back to trying to destroy the other side. On our own terms. Any fights that pop into the public eye are a bunch of young rogues from both sides or reenactments or public justice like football." Dominus' eyes light up.

"A ruse. What you are proposing is a ruse. The mundane world has no right to our secrets and our mysteries. A worldwide cover-up! How progressive!" Dominus is gleeful.

"I don't trust him." bitch-face speaks again. "He hasn't touched his blood." I smile at her.

"Forgive me. I took a sip. I have found that having fresh, willing blood donors has ruined me to the taste of fear in my meals…but I enjoyed the cinnamon. It was a nice touch." she slumps back and Dominus taps the table with one finger.

"Forgive Phyllis. She speaks out of turn too often. I must punish her after the meeting is over." Phyllis doesn't even flinch. I cotted on to what they were doing. Phyllis was to play devil's advocate while Dominus got to be the fascinated but stern patriarch. Vampire version of good cop/bad cop. Didn't matter to me. I wasn't going to give them anything they could use or not figure out on their own.

"She doesn't bother me." I shrug it off and let the awkward silence fall. I let it stretch for a moment or two. "Do we have an agreement?"

"You have given us much to think on, William." Dracula eventually concedes. "I must have a night and a day to consider it."

"Mm, as do I." Dominus rises. "Tomorrow night...if Vladimir or I have decided to lend our weight to your cause, fledging, there will be a show of faith from all sides. Tomorrow. Come, my childer, I must feed." The Cainites rise and trail their master out of the room. Dracula slumps back and rings a bell that seemingly appears out of nowhere. A small scaly demon appears and whisks away all the dirty goblets.

"I must to my hunt as well. The night grows old. I will see that you are brought willing food, Spike." Dracula's lips hardly as he speaks so that his voice sounds from the air. I snort.

"You should have a dummy for that ventriloquist act." Dracula smiles softly.

"I usually do." He rises. "They will help. We've made no secret that Xander is important to us both and they know that I will help out of fondness for him. They know that if they do not act soon their Masses of Cain will be wiped from the earth or forgotten. Perhaps both. You played beautifully tonight. I had thought that I'd have to reveal my own intentions in protecting your interests. It pleases me to find it unnecessary."

"And wot are your intentions, Drac?" He gives a smile that mysterious then flashes some fang before letting his face drift back into a blank canvas."

"That would be telling, would it not? Goodnight, William, perhaps I will see you before dawn reaches my place of rest." He steps back into the shadows and is gone. Fucking Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden. I sit for awhile contemplating my next move. Dracula didn't live up to his promise of helping me find Xander's room which was hardly surprising. I contemplate wandering until I found it but I wasn't about to go traipsing about Vlad's funhouse of terror on my own without a guide. Although, Dracula is the sort that would tell all of his servants to mislead me just so that I end up wandering into the main courtyard just as the sun comes up over the horizon leaving Xander all to Dracula's tender care….or, and here's the kicker, I could call Xander and get him to help me. I grab my cell from a pocket and flip it open. No reception.

Dammit.

I wander out the dining hall and toward the nearest window. "You wouldn't get an reception inside Castle Dracul or for two miles around it." A voice says and I fight myself not to jump. I turn slowly and there's a little Gypsy grandmother standing part in the shadows. "Not even satellite phones. Signal scrambler." A wolf howls outside the window. She cocks her head to the side. "Ah, the children of the night. Such music they make."

"I'd ask you to lead me back to the room I am sharing with my Claimed but I figure your Master would tell you not too." The old woman bobs her shaggy head.

"However, if I were to say that I was bringing a snack to the manservant." She holds up a tray of tea and fruit into the starlight. "And you were to follow me…that wouldn't be against my orders as long as I say not to follow me." She waits a beat. "Don't follow me." She starts off down the corridor. I wait a few seconds and follow behind her. Dracula's castle, Dracula's games and thus Dracula's rules. Bloody hell. What did I get Xander into?

Eventually, she knocks on a door and light spills out of it, silhouetting my lover but his scent was unmistakable as was his voice "Vadoma! Come in! How are you?" The old woman enters the room and I catch up just as the door starts to close. Xander blinks at me, lost in shock…and was that signs of hypnotism? I kiss him hard to break him out of it, just in case. After a vertigo inducing second, Xander responds and wraps an arm around my waist. The old woman snorts and walks around us to shut the door.

"He's a smart one, this fledging. Another second and I would have told you that a Cainite was following me and ask for protection. You have good taste, manservant." Xander pulls away to breath and answer the woman.

"Vadoma! That's horrible."

"Is expected. The Master sees the fledging as competition. I would be rewarded for ridding of him." Xander's jaw drops. I close it with a finger without loosening my grip on him.

"It is expected, Xander. Vampires live by death and blood." Xander looks at me.

"But, Vadoma's human." I shake my head.

"She's one of the sisters." I say gently then look at the old woman. "The blonde one, right?" She grins and transforms into a blond Circassian beauty.

"Only one that can cook. The Master won't be pleased that you sniffed me out."

"Eh, watch me care. You tried to get my lover to kill me." She grins like a wolf.

"I don't smell of vampire, how'd you sniff me out?"

"You used Drac's wolf line when describing the hunt call; 'children of the night'. It was an undead giveaway." She grins and grabs an apple off of the tray that she had set down on the end table across the room. She was fast. "Those tricks of Dracula's don't impress me, love."

"What tricks of my Master? These are my tricks, Mine and my sisters. Bite." She offers the apple to Xander.

"Bite the apple, bite. Nothing bad happened to me and the snake said it was okay." I parrot. Xander, who had almost accepted the fruit, stops. "Don't accept anything from the sisters, Xander." She scoffs.

"We like the manservant. He's nice to our older forms. No one is nice to our older forms. They prefer us young and subtle." She pets Xander's cheek and I can see his eyes start to glaze over.

"Vadoma…how'd I not see you were one of the vixens?" She grabs his hand a lays it alongside her neck.

"Fake a pulse. Smell human." She turns red glowing eyes to me. "Come to bed now." I'm on the bed with my clothes off next to an equally naked Xander before I realize what's happened. Vadoma is kissing her way down my body while slowly milking his erection to fullness. I'm already there. She scraps small, sharp fangs down my stomach and laps at the pooling blood. Ah.

It's been awhile since I've a lover that liked a little violence with their sex. She makes another set of parallel cuts on my left thigh and I groan to look over at Xander. Vadoma's fingers have disappeared behind Xander's balls and the he's kissing me as two small, slender fingers enter me. Xander and I moan into the kiss. Got to love having a lover who has several centuries of sexual experience under their belt.

There is a cool mouth wrapped around me and I reach down to stroke Xander. He thrashes against my side and accidently claws a nipple. I'm about to roll over and pin him for that when Vadoma finds my prostate and I'm pretty sure I just experience real death for a moment because I'm looking down at my body thinking 'holy fuck!'. Then I'm back in my body and Xander's purposefully playing with my nipple and there's all sorts of fun things going on in the bed and the bedroom door slams open. I break away from Xander, whose mouth latches onto an ear, to growl in my true face at the intruder. I was having fun here!

Dracula was suddenly over us and flinging Vadoma across the room by her fuzzy hair. They were hissing back and forth in what I'm sure was a six hundred year old backwoods dialect of Romanian so quickly that most Romanians wouldn't have know what they were saying much less me. Xander, completely still enthralled, was starting to hump my leg.

That, in of itself, is a major distraction. Who cares what Dracula and one of his little brides are saying when I have a warm, nummy treat rubbing off on me. I reach over and grab his erection and use it as leverage to roll us over. Then I'm flying through the air, ass backward. I have just enough time to think 'wot the bleedin' 'ell?' before hitting the stone wall. I blink and recover to see Xander trying to paw Dracula onto him. Dracula grabs his hands and swings him out of the bed so that his feet are dangling a few inches off the floor. Seeing as Dracula is the shorter of the two it's impressive on sheer physics. Xander whines and that clears my head more than the head-to-wall impact did. I'm on Vadoma like white on rice and slamming her into the wall before Dracula can say "Everyone stop." We all freeze. I'm glaring at Vadoma careful not to meet her eyes. "That is enough. Vadoma, you will behave yourself or else." Really? or else? Is that really effective? Vague threats are no body's friend. Threaten to drop her out the window into the river with anvil stilettos. That's a threat.

"Yes, Master. I will behave." Vadoma looks past me. Bah, wimp. Xander wouldn't fold for such a cheesy vamp.

"Manservant, please get control of yourself."

"Yes, Master."…..I blame the gypsies….and Victorian Gothic literature. Dracula wasn't nearly this bad before that bloody book was published.

"Spike." I steel myself and slip inside that place where nothing really matters. Dracula is at my side in what feels like normal time. Although, Xander's inhale tells me that it was faster than human. "Spike." Dracula whispers and wraps an arm across my waist.

"She fucked with me and mine." I hear the dead sound that comes out of my mouth; predatory and I couldn't bring myself to give a fuck. "By right, you lot can die tonight." I snarl when Xander comes up on the other side of me, arm around my waist, stinking of Dracul. My hand tightens on Vadoma's neck.

"It's true." Dracula admits. "Our lives are forfeit for the insult Vadoma paid you this night." Vadoma looks at her master until I dig my nails into her skin. She starts breathing. A pulse beats under my fingers. Ridges slip out along on my face, spine, and fingers, and my nails lengthen into claws. My fangs descend. I pull my free arm up and push Dracula away. Vadoma whimpers. There's only one way for this to end and it's bloody.

"Spike. Please, don't kill her," a soft voice asks in my ear "for me?" I glance at Xander and the violent moment passes. I crack my neck and my human features slip to the fore. I wretch Vadoma into Dracula before releasing her neck.

"Get out." I tell them, still staring at my Claimed. Dracula nods and leads his bride out of the room. Shutting the door behind them. Xander touches my sides, softly. "Don't touch me."

* * *

_**Author After Talk**_: eep!

Tropic


	14. Breathe

_**Sometime Around Midnight**_

_**By**_: Tropicwhale

_**Disclaimer**_: Mine, it is not.

_**Warnings**_: Cussin'

_**Author Talk**_: So I reread "Bathing in Blood" and remember all the crap I was planning to put in the overall arc. How bitchin' is that?

* * *

**Chapter Fourteen**: _Breathe_

It hurt. Him telling me not to touch him so I backed off. I wasn't sure if he was going to lash out at me or what. He took a few steps away from me and asks "Is there a bathroom?" I point toward the right door. "Ta." He goes in and slams the door shut. I can hear a shower running. I walk carefully over and test the door. It's unlocked. I slip in and shut us in. Spike's standing under the spray behind the clear glass of the stall, head down, arms at his sides. I slid open the door and step under the cold water with him. I shut the door and reach around my boyfriend to adjust the heat then wrap my arms around him.

"Sorry." I say. He snorts.

"Nothing you did wrong, pet. It was all on her."

"Still feel like I should apologize." He leans back into me and I run my hands over his wet chest. "Can you look at me?" He swivels his head to look up at me and buries his nose in my neck.

"I keep trying to keep you from this vamp crap. It doesn't seem to be working."

"Try not. Do. Or do not. There is no try."(2)

"I love you."

"I love you too. It bugs me when you flip out like that."

"It bugs me when you think you're Yoda."

"There is no think there is only say."

"You are such a-"

"Watch your mouth."

"Nerd."

"Yep."

"Loser"

"Absolutely."

"Andrew."

"Jerk."(1)

"Bitch."(1)

"Take that back!" Spike giggles like a thirteen year old and turns in my arms.

"Never. At least not in the obligatory sexy shower scene."

"Who said this was a sexy shower scene? Maybe I just want to get clean and conserve water?"

"No you don't. You want to sex me up. You know you do." He grabs two handfuls of my ass. "I'm a nummy treat."

"You're a weirdo, is what you are." He laughs again.

"That too. The two ain't mutually exclusive, y'know?"

"So what's next?"

"I'm thinkin' a blow job."

"_Spike_."

"_Xanderrr_"

"Spike."

"Xander. Seriously, when was the last time we got it on?"

"This morning." There was a beat of silence from my boyfriend.

"Oh yeah." He bounces back and grins that 'I'm a dirty mofo and you _know_ you love me' grin that he has. You know the one. Yep, that grin. People lose limbs when that grin occurs. "Well, that was a while ago and I'm horny again."

"Geez, what are you going to do when I'm old and can't get it up more than once a week?"

"I'll sneak Viagra into your oatmeal." That laugh is because you know he'll do it. My boyfriend, ladies and gentlemen…lucky me.

"Spike, be serious for a second about something other than sex." Be specific, leave no loopholes because Spike is exceedingly adept at finding them.

"Fine."

"What are we going to do next? What's the game plan?"

"You are such an American male. Game plan." he snorts.

"Spike."

"The game plan is trust me."

"No. I want to help…what can I do? Are there any other Claims that I can cozy up to? Is there any way I can get information that can help you in the negotiations?" Spike looks up at me. "What? You hang out around Willow for a lifetime the smart rubs off." He breathes in. "What? I should hang around Vadoma?"

"Yeah. If she's willing to talk to you, the pair of you should be able to hit up some of the younger Cainites. I hate that you can read me like that."

"You could sound more enthused about it. It's a good thing I'm your Claimed then, isn't it?"

"She just tried to mess with us. I guess so, it's still creepy as fuck from my end." (3)

"Vadoma wanted to win me for her master…we could use that." Spike gives me a look. "What?"

"Slytherin"

"Hey! I'm Hufflepuff."

"That's worse. When a Hufflepuff dies he ends up in Forks, Washington….sparkling."

"I already sparkle."

"Gay and loving it?"

"Just embracing the fact I've been converted."

"Aw, you're so sweet."

"You could convert me for real." I drop my voice into a lower octave. If Spike had color in his face it would be draining.

"Did you? Did you just-?"

"Did I just tongue-tie the infamous William the Bloody?"

"A little." He squeaked. I kiss the tip of his wet nose.

"I was joking, Spike. I don't want to be a vampire. I like Italian food too much." Spike released a puff of air.

"Don't do that." I back him into the wall and rub against him.

"What? That?" I nip at his jaw. "Or that?" I kiss his lips and he growls. "Okay, if you say so." I pull away and turn off the water. "I'm going to go to bed." I got out of the shower and I just opened the door to the bedroom when Spike caught up to me. He wraps his arms around me and growls.

"You rotten bitch." I grin as he sends us flying through the air to land on the bed. "You are such a tease."

"Uh-huh. Whatcha going to do about it, Master?" Spike's head drops and he growls.

"You are going to be the life of me."

"I know." I chuckle. "So, anything that I should be on the look-out for?"

"Dammit. What will it take to distract you?"

"Mm, chocolate. But really, nothing. My mind's on the job, Spike."

"I got a job for you."

"Was that a challenge, Fangless?"

"You know it, Donut Boy." Spike rolls on top of my and off to the side, spreading out on the bed like a cat. "Now." He inhales and licks his lips. His hand drifts downward to frame his crotch. "Help me relax."

* * *

_**Author After Talk**_: (1) Can anyone name my newest obsession off of this? Anyone? C'mon! Give ya a hint…it's like "Buffy" and "Angel" but with guns, one really sweet car (seriously, that car alone is worth a couple of spontaneous orgasms, Anya would be in heaven), and three really, hot, gorgeous guys. It's like BtVS except without the annoying Buffy/most of the females to get in the way of the hotness. See how that works? So epic.

(2) Cuz I may not like Star Wars but Yoda is freaking awesome, there's no denying it.

(3)It was hard to write having two conversations with the same person at once. This is why I don't text and drive. I love this bit of convo thou. It's such a 'couple thing'.

Ah, it feels good to be writing again….

Love from the Dorkside;

Tropic


	15. A Wolf Howls

**_Sometime Around Midnight_**

_**by**_: Tropicwhale

_**Disclaime**_r: Not mine, you mofos, quit it with the reminding me of the fact.

_**Author Talk**_: I should probably upload the rest of this story/write it.

* * *

**Chapter Fifteen  
**_A Wolf Howls _

Another night, another little death by sheer boredom. Are we done yet? You know who I blame? Angel. If Broodus Foreheadus(1) would just play it straight for once, none of us would be in this mess. Also, everything is always his fault. It's like the vampire version of Freud.

The Cainites haven't shown their faces tonight so at the moment it was just me and Dracula…staring each other down. Either I was winning or he fell asleep with his eyes open.

"You know, schematics aside, you really had no right taking the boy without my approval first." Dracula says suddenly, quietly, barely moving his lips. I somehow manage not to jump out of my skin.

"Would you have given it?"

"No."

"Glad I didn't ask then." Great, we're going to have _this_ conversation. Another staring contest. Another five minutes of silence. Vampires can wait. We're good at it.

"I would not have chosen you as a mate for him."

"Is that why you've been half-heartedly trying to kill me or seduce me while we've been in town? Don't think I don't know that you were behind that stunt of Vadoma's this morning." Dracula laughs, or seems to. There was a quirk of his lips either way.

"Oh William. So forthright. It is a wonder you ever survived a century."

"I was lucky."

"I would have to agree. I'd have killed you by now had you been my Childe. Angelus had more patience then I."

"Nope. He tried to stake me more than once but Dru pitched a fit to wake the dead." Dracula quirks his lips again and shifts.

"Drusilla." That word was enough.

"Yeah, Drusilla." I agree. I break eye contact, suddenly dulled by the whole thing.

"You are too young yet to be feeling the Waking Death." Dracula says. I look over at him. His lips were quirked to show a fang and that disappeared soon enough. "It happens to the older ones. We all find ways to minimize it."

"How do you?" Knowing full well that it was an intensely personal question, akin to asking how one lost one's virginity. Dracula's lips quirk again.

"I sleep." He says. "I sleep in the dirt of my forefathers, whose spilt blood echoes out from the furrowed earth. It is…peaceful."

"When I'm with Xander…it's peaceful." Dracula smiles. An honest to goodness smile.

"He cannot last forever." He says gently.

"I don't want him to. It would ruin him." I exhale. "It would ruin me." Dracula is by my side, touching my face. Gypsy tricks.

"Poor Childe. You cut such a tragic figure and yet so strong. If any other vampire were as honest as you are they would long since be dust." I make the mistake of making eye contact. Bloody gypsy tricks. I am held by a suddenly steel grip.

"Vladimir." I say. Dracula's mouth is open, wide and red. His fangs gleam in the low light and I can see the bat-like visage below the surface of his human face like a holographic baseball card.

"I could take you now if I wanted." his voice whispers from somewhere behind my left shoulder. "You'd enjoy it, little one." I thought of Xander, desperate to grab hold of something that wasn't undead in origin. "I'd have Vadoma tell him after. He trusts her even now." His voice was lower, closer to my chest. I am still caught staring at the creature that stood above me.

"It would destroy him." I grind out with no small effort. "Please don't. Stop, please." Dracula is back across the room, brushing a single hair from his eyes and then falling into stillness. He has my eye contact now. He can control it.

"One night, Robert William Francis Pratt, I am going to bend you over and ride you until dawn." There is a quirk of his lips. "But for now…you belong to my Manservant. And he to you. Care for each other or I will rip you both apart." I gulp. Great. The Great Count Dracula has a hard-on for me and my boy and isn't afraid to get down and dirty about it. Lucky us.

Just then, the Cainites blow into the room like a group of self-important prats. Oh, wait they are self-important prats. "Count Dracula, Father of the Dracul and William the Bloody, Childe of Drusilla of the Cult of Aurelius. Thank you for waiting." Dominus says as he enters, as if this is his court and we're merely visitors. I suppose if you're going to be a self-important prat either go big or go home.

"Dominus, Father of the Black Masses of Cain." Dracula stands and shoots me a glance that commands me to stand. I do. Grudgingly. Dracula still has power over me. I can't believe he just rolled me like a freaking human.

"Dominus" I echo. Why do I feel like I just fell into a sort of trap?

"I have decided that the Black Masses of Cain would benefit from a world-wide subterfuge so our ways are once again swathed in the mystery and darkness of the night." He stops. Dracula and I don't make a move. I'm busy analyzing Dominus' wording when Dracula stands.

"Very well. A show of confidence is in order I suppose?" I glance at the Count of Lame.

"Of course." Dominus bows, the gallant rouge. He appears a little older tonight. More like a father figure than a youth. There are wrinkles around his eyes and his nails appear a little longer. Outside, somewhere, a wolf is howling. There isn't a full moon out.

"What sort of show of confidence?" I ask, part of my mind on the meeting and part analyzing that wolf howl. It's too dark for a proper hunt. Wolves only howl to call the pack together.

"The usual sort." Phyllis answers. Great. She's back. I glance at her and then look back at Dominus who is staring intently at me.

"You'll forgive my ignorance but my education did not extent this far. Only Darla had much use for the delicate politics of court. Angelus found them tedious and Drusilla preferred the company of her dolls and the stars. What is the usual sort?" Phyllis flashes her fangs triumphantly but my eyes are for Dominus when he says

"Why a death of a Claimed, of course."

* * *

**Author After Talk**: Du du dummmm Um….I wuv you?

(1)Borrowed from a reviewer's username….it was too good to pass up. Thank you

Tropic


	16. Hat Trick

_**Sometime Around Midnight**_

_**By**_: Tropicwhale

_**Disclaimer**_: Not mine.

_**Author Talk**_: mmm, yo. Merry Christmas?

* * *

**Chapter Sixteen  
**_Hat Trick _

I wait for a half an hour for the vampires to be engrossed in their meeting before I go looking for Vadoma. I find her in the kitchen. She has a large purpling bruise across the left side of her face and she winces away from me. I go to the refrigerator and pull out some ice. I know, Dracula's high-tech for a vampire in some instances…refrigerator means mid-day snacks when it's too dangerous to go hunting. I wrap the ice in a towel and lay it on her face. "Sorry." I say. She looks like an old woman. She swallows and hands me a bowl of soup.

"It was not your fault, manservant."

"Was this Spike's doing? Cuz I'll yell at him for you."

"No. No. The fledge caused no real damage. I startled him more than anything."

"Dracula." I say. She touches just below my eye patch.

"I was clumsy."

"He smacked you. This isn't a running into a wall bruise, Vadoma. I should know, I run into walls a lot…and get hit by monsters a lot. I know the difference." She smiles and pats my hand.

"You misunderstand. I was clumsy with how I handled our little adventure last night. This is punishment. It will fade by morning."

"Vadoma…"

"It is not important."

"It is. To me it is. You're a friend. You look out after me. Speaking of which, the gypsy men stole some of my clothes again. Help?" She smiles then winces.

"I will speak with them but give-"

"No guarantees." I finish. "That's fine. Thank you. I'd offer you some of my blood if I wasn't sure it piss Spike and Dracula off royally." She nods and gestures to the soup.

"Yes, our masters are stern and jealous men. Eat."

"Yes, ma'am." She nods and moves away to bustle around the kitchen. I eat. "What is this? Rabbit?"

"Horse." I blink at her. "Don't worry. It was bought at the butcher, not killed by me." I relax.

"Ok. This land is not my land, your ways are not my ways." She likes that. A little smirk dances around her eyes.

"Say what you will, manservant, you are Dracul." She shifts into her younger form between one step and the next. "Always."

"Ingénue." She laughs and the bruise looks somehow better on the smoother, younger skin. More like make-up rather than a symptom of beaten wife syndrome.

"Oh, I would have kept you if I could."

"You should have moved faster."

"The time was never right. You…" She waves away the thought. "The wolf pack is anxious this night."

"Uh?" I slurp some of my soup. "I don't hear anything."

"Better ears. This is not a night they would be on the hunt." Vadoma turns to me suddenly. She sweeps the bowl away from me and dumps the contents into the sink, turns off the heat under the pot and drags me out a hidden doorway recessed into a wall behind the fireplace.

"Vadoma-?"

"Something is very, very wrong. Come, manservant." She flies up a stairway, dragging me behind her. She busts through another door and down a hallway. "I must warn my sisters and the men." We take a sharp right and up another staircase. We bang through another door into a voluminous bedroom. The other two sisters sit straight up from where they were lounging half naked. They were young and brunette. "Have you not heard the wolves? What are you still laying about?" Her language switched to the old Carpathian dialect. The sisters flew about the room, dressing and one flew out a window and down, disappearing from sight. The other one disappears into the shadows. Vadoma looks at me suddenly, her eyes are red and wide. "If something happens to you my life is forfeit." With that she has me around the waist and we're out the window and crawling down the side of the castle. Let me rephrase…she's crawling down the side of the castle like a lizard and I'm clinging to her like a terrified koala. "Do not make a sound." I just close my eyes and cling.

Soon enough, we had reached the ground and were off and running through the woods. I could hear the sounds of men fighting and wolves howling. "Vadoma, what's going on?" There was a gunshot. "Holy Fuck!"

"The Cainites are making a move on Castle Dracul. They have been trying to do so for some time."

"So, we led them right to us?"

"Yes."

"Dammit."

"It is not your fault, manservant. Vampires plan and are patient. This was just a good opportunity for them." She pulls me down the river bank and forces me to stay low. "River will hide our scents. Stay quiet and here. That way is the helicopter pad and village. I will come back for you." She nods downstream and flints off into the dense underbrush.

I can hear the sounds of a fight nearby between people with some canine snarling. I have to wonder if the Cainites brought in their own caravan of human slaves because vampires tend to be eerily quiet when fighting amongst themselves. It's strangely untheatrical. The waning moon is still full enough to see by and I'm just about to sneak downriver toward the helicopter pad when something crashes through the bushes toward me.

A fight with two wolves, a human and two vampires crashes through the bushes onto the bank downstream firmly between me and the path to safety. I press back into an indent in the dirt and I reach for the semiautomatic at the small of my back.

Wondering about the gun? Yeah, started carrying that around somewhere in Africa because sometimes, like now, I can't always have a slayer or a vampire boyfriend or a witchy best friend or a Giles around to watch my back. Sometimes, there's a snarling hyena in your tent with you. True story. Spike knows about the gun and he also made me take him down to the nearest target range and registers' office to prove, yes I know how to use it and use it safely. I don't recommend everyone have one, that's what a sharpened baseball bat is for. Anyway, enough of the NRA speech, back to the story.

So gun out and back against a literal rock, ow, I watch the fight. I know the wolves were Dracula's, I wasn't too sure about the human or the vampires and the light was low enough that I wasn't about to shoot blindly. I do the next best thing. I dig the rock out of my back because that's just common sense and I lob it at the fight. I hit a wolf that yelps and jumps back. It also directs the vampires' attention in my direction which gives the human time to dust one and the other wolf the chance to bite the other one's groin. The vamp howls in pain and the human puts it out of its misery. The human takes a moment to check the hurt wolf which is already shaking off and the other wolf is sniffing in my direction. I stand. The human walks closer and the wolves move to outflank me. "Sunt cu Dracula" Ok not the most intelligent phrase I ever uttered because hey, the human might be a bad guy but I'm banking on the wolves attacking his groin if he was. As it was the wolf that bit the vampire was taking a drink from the river. Vamp dust in your mouth sucks. I would say vamp-groin but I actually don't mind that.

It's all Spike's fault.

The man answers back in that rapid dialect that I never did get the handle on. "Eu sunt robul" I say hoping for a switch to a more common tongue.

"Ah, manservant." There's a part of me that goes 'ah, english' and another part influenced unhealthily so by Willow and Giles that responds 'oh shoot, I actually wanted to practice my Romanian.' and another part influenced by Buffy, Spike and Beledia that go 'now is not a good time, Xander'. Funny what goes through your mind when you're on adrenaline. "Come. Marius will keep you safe"

"No. I have to get back to the castle." I have to make sure Spike is okay.

"No. Master can take care of himself. Marius takes care of you."

"It is not your Master that I'm worried about, Marius. I need to find the fledgling Master. He's the one that I need." There was a signal from Marius and the wolves, who had laid down, where up and growling at me. I growled right back and advanced, sticking the gun into Marius' ribs. "I need to get back to the castle because people I care about are back there and probably don't know about this fight that is going on. Dracula and Spike need to be warned of the Cainites' treachery. Are you going to help me or not?" Marius' eyes widened and the dogs whimpered.

"You aren't human."

"What are you talking about? I'm as human as you." Marius let out a dark chuckle and Vadoma appeared behind him. "Vadoma." She inhaled heavily.

"Come, put away the gun, manservant." She walks toward me and my gun is out of my hands. Dammit.

"Vadoma, that wasn't fair." Using vampire/gypsy mind tricks to take away my own means of defending myself is just mean.

"Manservant, there is a battle going on. I am not going to allow you to stick your nose into thick of it and get yourself killed. Dracula, our master, knows about this thing. He is very old and very wise."

"But is he going to tell Spike? You've already tried to separate me from my new Master once already. You were the one that said that vampires are opportunistic. I'm not about to fall for the same trap twice. As a Claimed of a visiting Master, you are going to give my back my gun and we're going to the castle and you will lead me to Spike. And then, we're going to all go downriver to the helicopter pad and get the hell out of dodge."

"Xander," Vadoma touches my cheek and for once nothing. No mind tricks or illusions.

"Vadoma, that is what we are doing." There was a flicker of surprise on her face in the darkness.

"Marius and I cannot leave the lands of our Master. The land is sacred to us."

"You don't have to sleep in the ground of your fathers, Vadoma, come with me. Come to Paris." She shakes her head. "You and your sisters can come and Marius." Vadoma shakes her head harder.

"You know not of what you speak. I will lead you back to the castle and help you find your Master, Xander. From there you will have to find your own way out."

"Fair enough." With that we set off back to toward the den of vampires.

* * *

_**Author After Talk**_: Yeah, the gun thing….it does make an appearance in the comics so I'm using it. Sorry.

Romanian to English translation  
Off the internet, please, if you speak Romanian and know the phrase, review and tell me

_Sunt cu Dracula_- I'm with Dracula

_Eu sunt robul_-I'm the manservant

Tropic


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